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BRITAIN’S AMBASSADOR IN the US has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional,” according to leaked memos published by the Mail on Sunday.
Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace,” in the cache of secret cables and briefing notes sent back to Britain.
“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch allegedly wrote.
The paper said the most damning comments by Darroch described Trump, who was received by Queen Elizabeth II during a state visit to Britain just last month, as “insecure” and “incompetent”.
A memo sent following the controversial visit said the president and his team had been “dazzled” by the visit, but warned Britain might not remain “flavour of the month” because “this is still the land of America First”.
He reportedly wrote that the “vicious infighting and chaos” inside the White House – widely reported in the US but dismissed by Trump as “fake news” – was “mostly true”.
Darroch is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats, whose posting in Washington DC began in January, 2016, prior to Trump winning the presidency.
The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone within Britain’s sprawling civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017.
In one of the most recent reported dispatches filed on June 22 Darroch criticised Trump’s foreign policy on Iran, which has prompted fears in global capitals of a military conflict, as “incoherent” and “chaotic”.
He allegedly said the president’s assertion, that he called off retaliatory missile strikes against the Iranian regime after a US drone was shot down because it risked killing 150 Iranians “doesn’t stand up”.
“It’s more likely that he was never fully on board and that he was worried about how this apparent reversal of his 2016 campaign promises would look come 2020,” Darroch reportedly stated, referring to the next presidential election.
Britain’s Foreign Office did not dispute the veracity of the memos.
“The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their country,” a spokeswoman said.
“Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government,” she added, noting “we pay them to be candid”.
“Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White House and no doubt that these will withstand such mischievous behaviour,” the spokeswoman said of the potential fallout from the leak.
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Well done President Trump and President Putin.
@Steve Miller: and president Assad.
@Steve Miller: I’ll second that one!, well done President Trump!…
When will the refugees start going home?
@Steve Miller: 500k have already returned so far this year as the Syrian govt brings more areas under its control.
@Andy Brown: “440,000 internally displaced Syrians and about 31,000 of those who fled abroad have now come back”
Well done to Russia and Trump for putting an end to this war.
@Irreverent Reverend: Unbelievably premature statement. Ceasefires are notorious for breaking down in this region and in this war, it’s absolute madness to say that the war is over.
@Malachi:
Cutting off funding, weapon supplies and supply routes should help.
This conflict has gone on for too long.
@George Vladisavljevic: Where did you see anything about funding being cut?
The US and Russia have struck a tentative deal that seems to be holding, for now, in Southwest Syria. I don’t see anything that suggests the respective countries have abandoned their preferred factions in the region.
Even if they did do such a thing, there are far too many countries involved in this war for a US-Russia agreement to halt funding to any one side. Think of Turkey, Iran, etc. with interests they want to pursue in the region. This kind of thing has happened before and has broken down before.
I agree that it has gone on too long, but that’s hardly a controversial point.
@Malachi:
I believe that if the Russians and the Americans want a ceasefire to hold it will hold atleast for the groups that they back.
ISIS is a different matter, but if they both put pressure on them and their backers, the conflict could be ended relatively soon.
@George Vladisavljevic: As I said, there are more forces at work than just the Russians and Americans. We’ll see how it pans out – but you have to admit that proclaiming the war is over (after what is it, three major failed ceasefires already?) is premature to the extreme.
Not too concerned about the fight against ISIS, that’ll be done relatively soon. It’s the major divisions that still exist in Syria that are going to keep the conflict going between the opposition and Assad.
@Malachi:
I agree with you about other forces being involved and it would be nice to see the US and the Russians in working together to end the conflict. If they did, others such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and others would not have much choice but to stay out, that is if the US and Russia worked together in really wanting to stop the confkict.
US seems to be excepting that Assad will stay in power at least in some parts of Syria…..Departure from the insane Obama policy of regime change with millitary supplies to the so called moderate Sunni rebels…..With IS close to final defeat hopeful signs of end of 6 year Syrian war….
Good news. I can’t see the so called Caliphate playing any part in this though. Not a huge fan of the Russians or Americans but common sense prevailed here, the enemy is ISIS and groups mimicking them.
Only skimmed it but didn’t see a mention of Trump or Putin. AFP are more butthurt than redditors at this point it seems.
This is the action of a New World Order I can get behind!
They might as well there’s nothing left to fight for the whole country’s nearly destroyed.
@Dave Hogan: it’s strategic value will never be destroyed.
@Dave Hogan: that’s not even close to being true. Stop spouting rubbish you clearly don’t know anything about
Trump and Putin got it done. I don’t care who is responsible as long as it can hold off some suffering. Credit where credit is due. Hopefully it can be built upon.
Fake news. Assad warplanes still dropping bombs this morning
@Mr Scientist: The ceasefire covers the Southwest, and so far even rebel sources have said that it is holding. Don’t know where you saw that about Assad warplanes, do you have a link?
@Malachi: @worldonalert twitter. Videos of regine warplanes dropping bombs this morning in Ein Tarma.
@Mr Scientist: You lazy b0l0x. I couldn’t find any link that was less than 3 days old. I’ll have to discount your “facts” until you can provide evidence.
@Virtual Architect: are you incapable of scrolling through a timeline on Twitter. Several put up there today ya sap
@Mr Scientist: I saw a plume of smoke over a city allegedly recorded today, that’s about it. Not terribly convincing I must say. What videos did you see?
Also, why are the rebels not claiming that Assad has violated the ceasefire already? They immediately did so last time he did, in January. If the rebels are not saying Assad’s warplanes violated ceasefire, I’d be very skeptical he did.
@Malachi: what evidence are you basing on the ceasefire is holding? I’m following multiple accounts on Twitter with the people operating within syria saying the ceasefire talk is a joke. Rebels also not following it.
@Mr Scientist: http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/09/us-russian-ceasefire-deal-holding-in-southwest-syria
“A UK-based Syrian observer and several rebel groups in the area said calm was prevailing [...] witnesses reported no warplanes or significant fighting.”
I remember it being all over the media when Assad violated in in January, as I said. No such reports this time, and SOHR would definitely be all over it.
@Malachi: UK based syrian observer is a middle aged man sat in Coventry, I’d take that with a pinch of salt. Reason why violations were reported last time because US were not involved. Suddenly now there the ones to broker it with Russia and all western media outlets say it’s holding. Gimme a break..
@Mr Scientist: I don’t particularly trust SOHR, my point was that he’s pro-rebel and would definitely report on a ceasefire violation if it was all over twitter as you suggest.
US backed forces were involved when there was a major ceasefire attempt at the tail end of 2016. The ceasefire wasn’t brokered by the US that time, sure, but do you really think this is just completely flying under the radar of even pro-rebel sources like SOHR and rebel leadership, who haven’t said a peep?
I did see reports from a few journalists that there were skirmishes and bombings in the “de-escalation zones” set up by the Russians/Turks a while back, but that was before this ceasefire came into effect. No claims of violations within that period have been convincing.
have your say