U.K.'s Boris Johnson Warns Trump He Won't Support a War With Iran

Boris Johnson, the favorite to become Britain’s next prime minister, warned Donald Trump he will not support U.S.-led military strikes against Iran, as the transatlantic alliance came under renewed strain.

During a debate with his rival for the leadership of the U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party, Johnson said the Tehran government is a “disruptive” and “difficult” regime military action is not “a sensible option for us in the west.”

“Diplomacy must be the best way forward,” Johnson said. “If you ask me if I think, were I prime minister now, would I be supporting military action against Iran, the answer is ‘No.”’

Both the U.S. government and Iran have said they are not seeking a war. The president has said military action remains an option on the table but canceled a planned air strike in retaliation for Iran shooting down an American drone last month, opting instead of increased sanctions.

But Johnson’s comments, ruling out joining any U.S.-led military action, risk undermining Trump’s attempts to pressure Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions and end its destabilizing activities in the region.

Johnson’s rival for the Tory leadership, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said there was a danger of a conflict breaking out by accident. “The risk we have is an accidental war because something happens in a very tense volatile situation,” Hunt said.

The two contenders to be prime minister were facing each other in a leadership debate hosted by The Sun, a U.K. tabloid newspaper. Relations between the U.K. and the U.S. are already strained and both Johnson and Hunt added to the chorus of criticism against Trump for his tweet about female Democratic lawmakers.

They were asked for their views after Trump posted a series of tweets suggesting that four U.S. lawmakers, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, should return to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

Johnson said the tweets were unacceptable. “When you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural society, you simply can’t use that sort of language about sending people back,” he said. “I mean that went out decades and decades ago -- and thank heavens for that.” Hunt said that the comments were “totally offensive.”