Trump pulled Iran deal ‘to spite Obama’, UK envoy says

BRITAIN’S ambassador to Washington believed US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclea r dea l because it was associated with his predecessor Barack Obama, accord i ng to lea ked docu ments published on Saturday.

“The administration is set upon a n act of d iplomat ic va nda l ism, seemingly for ideologica l and persona lit y reasons – it was Obama’s dea l,” a mbassador K i m Da r roch wrote in a diplomatic cable in May last year.

The cable was included in a second batch of lea ked repor ts published by t he Mail on Sunday newspaper, t he f i rst of which caused Da r r oc h t o r e s i g n e a r l i er l a s t week.

Sepa r atel y, t he Sunday Times reported that a government investigation into t he lea k had identif ied a c i v i l s er v a nt a s t he per s on responsible.

Work i ng wit h of f icia ls f rom t he Nat iona l Cyber Secu r it y Cent re, part of spy agency GCHQ, and MI6, the probe has homed in on a suspect who had access to historical Foreign Off ice f iles, t he paper said.

The first leaked reports authored by Darroch were published in British tabloid the Mail on Sunday on July 7, causing major turmoil between Britain and its closest ally.

The ambassador 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.

Darroch resigned on Wednesday, saying it was now “impossible” to do his job.

In May last year, the then UK foreign minister, Boris Johnson, went to Washing ton to t r y to persuade Tr u mp not to aba ndon t he Ira n deal.

In a cable sent a f ter wards, Darroch repor ted ly i nd ic ate d t here were divisions in Trump’s team over t he deci sion, a nd c r it ic i sed t he White House for a lack of long-term st rateg y.

“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 Secretar y of State Mike Pompeo, during his talks with Johnson, “did some subtle distancing by talking throughout about ‘t he 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, t he US, China, Br ita i n, France, Russia and Germany signed a deal wit h Iran to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a partia l lifting of internationa l economic sanctions.

Tr ump had long been crit ica l of t he dea l a nd wit hdrew t he US on May 8 last year.