LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been slapped down over controversial comments he made regarding the UK’s key ally Saudi Arabia.
The UK government was forced to distance itself from remarks by Johnson, made at a recent conference in Rome, and which involved religion and proxy wars.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s official spokeswoman said that while the premier had “full confidence” in Johnson, his comments were his own personal view and did not reflect government policy.
The Foreign Office was also keen to emphasize the UK’s good relations with Saudi Arabia following Johnson’s remarks, which many commentators saw as a diplomatic blunder.
“As the foreign secretary made very clear on Sunday, we are allies with Saudi Arabia and support them in their efforts to secure their borders and protect their people,” the office told Arab News in a statement.
“Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misinterpreting the facts.”
Sources in the British government confirmed to Arab News that Johnson is still intending to travel to Saudi Arabia this weekend, where he is expected to engage in talks with government officials.
The visit will come just days after The Guardian newspaper published footage of Johnson at a conference in Rome last week, in which he broke with convention by publicly criticizing a UK ally.
The timing of the news was particularly unfortunate, given that it was around the same time Theresa May was speaking in Bahrain, where she pledged to boost defense ties with the Gulf, and acknowledged the “threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and to the wider Middle East.”
Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said that Johnson’s comments will not be well-received in the Gulf.
“They won’t be seen as positive and constructive at all,” he said of Johnson’s remarks. “I think that Saudi Arabia will take this very badly — and perhaps not just Saudi Arabia.”
May’s official spokeswoman did not specify whether Johnson will apologize for his remarks.
Doyle suggested that the foreign secretary is more likely to claim that some of his comments were taken out of context, and not directly aimed at Saudi Arabia.
“There is quite a lot of room for interpretation for his comments in a number of areas,” Doyle told Arab News.
Boris Johnson slapped down by No. 10 over Saudi remarks
Boris Johnson slapped down by No. 10 over Saudi remarks
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
