Tillerson aims to sell ‘America First’ to wary allies

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has announced the formation of working groups to discuss global crisis. (AP)

WARSAW: As President Donald Trump declared that “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 that the oft-repeated 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 US from withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear accord. Along the way, he also chastised Turkey for attacking US-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 that 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 this 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 Syrian regime, 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 US 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.
It was in Paris, at the inauguration of a new group dedicated to bringing those who use banned chemical weapons to justice, that Tillerson launched his accusations at Russia.
Russian officials responded furiously, insisting that the US was inventing new chemical weapons strikes for the purpose of maligning Russia.
Still, when Tillerson spoke the next day with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the spat was not mentioned in readouts by either side.