Donald Trump backflips on UK’s Chagos Island lease deal

Trump, who is considering strikes on the Islamic republic, lashed out hours after the State Department offered the latest US support to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Under the agreement, Britain would instead pay to lease the strategic joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia for a century.

“Prime Minister Starmer should not lose control, for any reason, of Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, 100 Year Lease,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“This land should not be taken away from the U.K. and, if it is allowed to be, it will be a blight on our Great Ally,” he wrote.

“We will always be ready, willing, and able to fight for the U.K., but they have to remain strong in the face of Wokeism, and other problems put before them.

“DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!” he demanded.

What is Diego Garcia?

Diego Garcia is the largest of the Chagos Islands, and has been used as a joint US-UK military base since the 1970s.

Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s from British colonisation.

Britain evicted thousands of people, who have since mounted legal challenges for compensation.

Separating the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, the British government created a new African colony, known as the British Indian Ocean Territory.

At the time, they avoided scrutiny from the United Nations by falsely claiming that the Chagos Islands had no permanent population.

The UK first announced it would give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in October of 2024, with the leasing deal to last an initial 99 year period.

Trump said the claims by people from the Chagos Islands were “fictitious in nature.”

In response to Trump, a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said that the deal secured the UK-US base and was “crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies.”

“The agreement we have reached is the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base,” the spokesperson said.

Trump focuses on Iran

Trump’s latest flip appears to come as he considers an attack on Iran, where authorities last month killed thousands of peoplein a crackdown on mass demonstrations.

Trump’s envoys on Tuesday held new negotiations with Iran’s top diplomat in Geneva and pressed for major concessions, starting with Tehran’s nuclear program.

The United States joined Israel in its bombing campaign of Iran in June, striking nuclear facilities as its ally carried out a much broader offensive.

“Should Iran decide not to make a Deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield locatedin Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime,” Trump said, referring to a US air base in England.

He said he was concerned by “an attack that would potentially be made on the United Kingdom, as well as other friendly Countries”.

On Tuesday, the State Department announced three days of talks next week with Mauritius on maintaining the Diego Garcia base.

In its statement, the State Department said: “the United States supports the decision of the United Kingdom to proceed with its agreement with Mauritius concerning the Chagos archipelago.”

Asked which statement to believe, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the social media post came directly from Trump and “should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration”.

When Starmer’s Labour government first reached the deal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly hailed it as “historic”.

Trump then called it an “act of GREAT STUPIDITY” that showed why the United States needed to conquer Greenland from ally Denmark.

Trump later said he accepted the deal after speaking to Starmer, a position on which he now appears to have backtracked.

— with AFP.