Pelosi warns legislators: Don’t mess with Irish peace accord

LONDON >> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a congressional delegation to Britain and Ireland this week. What’s being discussed? “Brexit, Brexit, Brexit,” she said.

In the old days, U.S.-Britain bilateral talks would be all about counterterrorism, intelligence sharing, NATO, Russia and China — and the special relationship.

Today, Brexit dominates. And on one particular point, Pelosi is emphatic: Don’t mess with the Irish peace accord. The speaker said Tuesday she had warned Prime Minister Theresa May, Conservative pro-Brexit hard-liners and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that if the churn of Britain’s messy break with the European Union in any way weakens the Northern Ireland peace pact known as the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement, the U.S. Congress will block any trade deals Britain might seek with the United States.

“Don’t even think about that,” Pelosi said she had warned. “We made it clear to all, that if there were any harm to Good Friday accords, no treaty.”

Pelosi did not have to remind her hosts that the Trump administration can negotiate treaties and trade deals. But she did emphasize that Congress has to approve them.

Speaking at the London School of Economics on Monday ahead of her visit to Dublin on Tuesday, Pelosi told pro-leave Brexiteers the 1998 Irish peace agreement was dear to Americans. The accord ended 30 years of sectarian strife, known as “the Troubles,” that left 3,500 soldiers, police and civilians dead.