New British Prime Minister Faced with Two Major Challenges: Brexit and Iran

Sarah Abed, an independent journalist and political commentator

The two most pressing issues on newly appointed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plate right now are Brexit and Iran. Will the UK leave the EU on October 31st regardless of whether they have a new deal, as he has stated previously? Will he choose diplomacy with Iran over increased sanctions and a military confrontation?

Brexit

On July 23rd it was announced that Boris Johnson was the winner of the Conservative Party leadership. Theresa May stepped down having failed to take Britain out of the European Union.

On July 24th Boris Johnson was formally appointed as the new Prime Minister of the UK, by Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace. Shortly after his Johnson began appointing his Senior Ministers: Finance Minister: Sajid Javid, Interior Minister Priti Patel, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay, and Defense Minister Ben Wallace.

In his first speech as PM on July 24th Boris Johnson has addressed the first issue, he said "We are going to fulfill the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October 31, no ifs or buts.”

Johnson continued on to say "We will do a new deal, a better deal that will maximize the opportunities of Brexit while allowing us to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of Europe based on free trade and mutual support. I have every confidence that in 99 days’ time we will have cracked it. But you know what —-we aren’t going to wait 99 days because the British people have had enough of waiting. The time has come to act, to take decisions, to give strong leadership and to change this country for the better," he said.

Iran

Theresa May was more aligned with the views of Brussels, Berlin, and Paris when it came to the JCPOA or Iran Deal. Whereas some experts are saying that Johnson might shift and realign himself and the UK, with the United States and follow in their steps by imposing increased sanctions. So far it isn’t clear what path he will take but if his recent statements are any indication it would appear that he prefers diplomacy over military confrontation.

On July 15th, while speaking at a leadership debate Johnson made statements that would indicate that the UK would not support US-led military strikes against Iran. Johnson also said that he didn’t see going to war with Iran as a sensible option. He went on to say that “Diplomacy must be the best way forward”. Jeremy Hunt UK Foreign secretary said he was on the same page as Johnson on the issue of Iran and warned of the risk of accidental war.

On July 22nd, 2019, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif spoke about the United Kingdom doing the bidding of the Trump Administration, while at a press conference in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

Zarif stated "The excuses that the United Kingdom and Gibraltar authorities provided for the confiscation of the ship that was carrying Iranian oil, it was not an Iranian ship, but it was a ship carrying Iranian oil, was clearly unfounded, the EU does not apply its rules to third parties, as a matter of principle and the United Kingdom on its way out of the EU is becoming holier than the pope, in doing things that the EU itself would not do and it has said publicly it would not do".

Zarif went on to say, "It was clear from the very beginning that the United Kingdom was doing the bidding for the Trump administration, this is not the first time the united kingdom started doing bidding for the United States administration, as soon as president Trump got elected and before he entered into office, the United Kingdom prevented implementation of agreements that we had reached with the previous government of the United states on behalf of President trump and the Iranian people have not forgotten that."

In a tweet that Zarif made on July 23rd he congratulated Johnson on his PM victory while making it clear that although Iran does not want confrontation, they will protect their coastline. The tweet said “The May governments seizure of Iranian oil at behest of the US is piracy, pure and simple. I congratulate my former counterpart, Boris Johnson on becoming UK Prime Minister. Iran does not seek confrontation. But we have 1,500 miles of Persian Gulf coastline. These are our waters and we will protect them.”

JCPOA

On July 28th, five world powers will be meeting in Vienna to discuss increased tensions in the Persian Gulf and how they can try to save the JCPOA. The nations attending are France, Britain, Germany, Russia and Iran. Last year U.S. President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal and implemented increased sanctions on Iran.

Harsh sanctions have not only crippled the private and public sectors in Iran but have directly impacted the most vulnerable members of Iranian society. Iran has referred to these sanctions as “economic terrorism”. China has also used the same terminology when referring to the sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran. Three of the six members of the Iran Nuclear Deal have proposed a system to provide economic relief to Iran through a complicated barter system but recent activity in the Strait of Hormuz has had an impact on that.

It will be very interesting to see what path Johnson takes after this meeting. Iran has made it clear that it does not seek confrontation but will protect its coastline.

Fall of Empires: London, Washington & Paris on brink of collapse

by George Galloway

George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows (including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator.

Despite the thrashing around of the NATO disinformation apparat, the imperial heartland 

has entered 2019 in a state of complete chaos.

Washington, London, and Paris – the three capitals of the Empire – are today effectively ungoverned, shutdown, tottering on the brink of collapse or under siege by their own 

people.

Their self-chosen Nemeses – Moscow and Beijing – meanwhile toast the New Year in a state of considerable optimism and self-confidence. These are the facts, this is the news.

We should start at the top of the Empire. The United States government has closed down amid stasis and a barrage of inter-governmental howitzers.

The defense secretary, 'Mad Dog' Mattis, has resigned as have other uniformed subalterns angry at the president's re-found determination to withdraw from costly and losing foreign wars. The actual "mad dog" – John Bolton – openly defies President Trump over Syria, Mueller closes in, and the new Democratic majority in the House gears up to "impeach the mother***er."

Nobody knows if President Trump will be around for much longer, and the merest glance at the views of his putative successor – Vice President Mike Pence – recalls the famous picture of President Nixon with his vice president, Spiro Agnew, standing behind him. The satirical speech bubble had Nixon pointing over his shoulder and saying "nobody is going to shoot me with this guy next in line."

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May is a dead woman walking; Britain's exit from the European Union is still a matter of total uncertainty, yet a mere 80 days away. Violence outside the Parliament has begun to erupt, no faction can command a majority, an election cannot be held because its most likely result would be the election of veteran anti-imperialist Jeremy Corbyn whom the 'deep state' would sooner see under arrest (alongside this writer, according to the coup-apparatus Integrity Initiative).

A no-deal Brexit will see the south of England grind to a halt given the lack of preparation for it, as trucks headed to and from the continent turn Kent, the 'Garden of England', into a car-park.

A Brexit in name only – otherwise known as Theresa May's deal – cannot pass in the House of Commons next week given Labour's opposition together with at least 50 of the government's own MPs and the 10 members of the coalition partners, the DUP.

A third option, a new referendum, runs the risk of the same scenario being played out (but almost entirely unreported here) on the streets of Paris and other French cities. Defying the result of the first referendum, cheating 17.4 million people of that which they voted for, risks social peace in England. Millions of Brexit voters are among those in Britain with nothing left to lose.

In France, the Elysee has become Macron's Bastille and it is not at all inconceivable that it will be stormed.

Last weekend his own spokesman had to be smuggled out of a back-door after a truck hijacked by protestors smashed through the door of his government building. The very conditions Macron strove so very hard to bring about in Damascus and that France DID help bring about in Kiev are now rocking the very foundations of the French Republic.

No amount of turning the 'Nelson's Eye' (when famously England's Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar was told that the French Navy were advancing on him, he put his telescope to the black patch covering his missing eye and said "I see no ships" – will alter the fact that for eight weeks and counting, hundreds of thousands of French people of all political stripes have been – increasingly violently – on the streets of cities throughout the country demanding that their president resign. And that Macron showering Euros down the Champs Elysees in concessions – in absolute defiance of the EU's fiscal rules – has merely encouraged 'les autres' to keep on demonstrating.

This week, the EU (and NATO) government of Italy joined the side of the 'Gilets-Jaunes', with Italy's Salvini personally denouncing the French president as being "against his own people."

This Saturday, a mammoth demonstration will take place in London,leveling the same raft of anti-austerity demands on the British government as the Yellow Vests are making of Macron. The center cannot hold.

The old order is dying; the new one cannot be born. If we are not careful we will soon be alive in the time of monsters.