AP, London :
A U.K. newspaper published more leaked memos from Britain’s ambassador in Washington on Sunday, despite a police warning that doing so might be a crime.
In one 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. ambassador Kim Darroch says President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran as an act of “diplomatic vandalism” to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama.
The memo was written after then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Washington in a failed attempt to persuade the U.S. not to abandon the Iran nuclear agreement.
“The outcome illustrated the paradox of this White House: you got exceptional access, seeing everyone short of the president; but on the substance, the administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons – it was Obama’s deal,” Darroch wrote.
Darroch announced his resignation last week after the newspaper published cables in which he’d branded the Trump administration dysfunctional and inept. The White House responded by refusing to deal with him, and Trump branded the ambassador a “pompous fool” in a Twitter fusillade.
U.K. police are hunting the culprits behind the leak – and, contentiously, have warned journalists that publishing the documents “could also constitute a criminal offence.”
Yet both Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the two contenders to become Britain’s next prime minister, have defended the media’s right to publish. “We have to make sure that we defend the right of journalists to publish leaks when they are in the national interest,” Hunt said.
British officials have said they have no evidence that hacking was involved in the documents’ release, and that the culprit is likely to be found among politicians or civil servants in London.
Police are investigating the leak as a potential breach of the Official Secrets Act, which bars public servants from making “damaging” disclosures of classified material. Breaking the act carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, though prosecutions are rare.
In May 2018, Britain’s then-foreign minister Boris Johnson went to
Washington to try to persuade Trump not to abandon the Iran deal.
In a cable sent afterwards, Darroch reportedly indicated there were divisions in Trump’s team over the decision, and criticised the White House for a lack of long-term strategy.
“They can’t articulate any ‘day-after’ strategy; and contacts with State Department this morning suggest no sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, whether in Europe or the region,” he wrote. He reported back that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during his talks with Johnson, “did some subtle distancing by talking throughout about ‘the President’s decision'”.
The newspaper reported that, according to Darroch, Pompeo also hinted that he had tried but failed to “sell” a revised text to Trump.
In 2015, the United States, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany signed a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a partial lifting of international economic sanctions.
Trump had long been critical of the deal and withdrew the United States on May 8, 2018.
As well as a government investigation into the leaks, police are also looking into a potential breach of the Official Secrets Act.
London’s Metropolitan Police sparked widespread condemnation on Saturday after a warning to journalists that publishing leaked documents could be a criminal matter.
Johnson, who is now in the race to succeed May as prime minister, said that prosecuting media outlets would have a “chilling effect on public debate”. Darroch was reported to have described the White House as “inept”, prompting Trump to claim the ambassador was a “pompous fool” whom he would no longer deal with.
The ambassador resigned on Wednesday, saying it was now “impossible” to do his job.
The British government has launched an investigation into the leaks, while police are also looking into a potential breach of the Official Secrets Act.
Reuters reported that a suspect behind the leak of confidential memos has been identified, according to the Sunday Times newspaper, citing unidentified government sources.
“They think they know who did the leaking,” a government source told the paper. “It’s now a case of building a case that will stand up in court. It was someone with access to historical files. They went in and grabbed a range of material. It was quite crude.”
