Tillerson seeks to reassure skeptical U.S. allies
WARSAW, Poland — As President Donald Trump declared “America First does not mean America alone” at a global economic forum in Switzerland, his top diplomat was on a European trip of his own, trying to convince skeptical allies the oftrepeated phrase is more than just lip service.
Yet a year into Trump’s presidency, his administration has demonstrated that “America First” may, indeed, mean “America alone,” though it remains unclear if that has helped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s bargaining position on crucial national security and foreign policy matters.
Amid crises in multiple hotspots and before joining Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Tillerson visited London and Paris with a full agenda aimed at defusing not only the issues at hand but also tensions with Washington.
His mission was primarily to secure British and French support for tough new measures against Iran that might prevent the U.S. from withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear accord. Along the way, he also accused Russia of responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria and chastised Turkey for attacking U.S.-backed Kurd forces there.
“As the old saying goes, it’s always darkest before the dawn,” Tillerson said while wrapping up his European tour in Warsaw on Saturday. “I don’t want to say we’re at the darkest moment of any of those three areas … but I think it’s why we have given it so much attention and are working hard with partners and allies to put mechanisms in place to begin the very, very hard work of addressing the concerns in all three.”
Tillerson left London for Paris on Monday cautiously optimistic progress could be made with the British and the French on crafting a supplemental agreement to the Iran deal that would address what Trump has said are serious flaws. Trump has vowed to pull out if those issues aren’t addressed by spring.
In London, Tillerson announced the formation of working groups that began meeting last week to look at specific points of concern including Iran’s ballistic missile program, sunset provisions that gradually allow Iran to resume some advanced atomic work, Iranian support for Syria’s government, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
While Iran will be excluded from those discussions, he said, the working groups would explore “how we might engage the Iranians on discussions to address these issues.”
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian questioned why the U.S. was focused on securing the side deal only with the three European nations that are individual participants in the nuclear accord — Britain, France and Germany — and not the other parties, China and Russia, or the European Union as a bloc.