When the little kid tries to play in the big boys’ playground

Early in August, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Spanish Ambassador to protest at the seizing of the oil tanker Grace 1 in Spanish waters. The embarrassed Spanish diplomat had to explain that while he, and his government, agreed that the incident had occurred in their waters, Britain claimed them for itself and when it sent Marines to take control of the vessel, it did so without consulting Spain.

Britain seizes the Grace 1.
The act of a might imperial power

It was an action worthy of an Imperial power. Britain, after all, only claims jurisdiction over those waters through its possession of Gibraltar. That’s a rock the size of a (very) small mountain, attached to the Spanish mainland and nearly 2500 kilometres from London. Britain took possession of it in the early days of its imperial expansion and only by right of war, since it was handed over by the Treaty of Utrecht which concluded the War of Spanish Succession.

Why on Earth was Britain involved in a war about the Spanish succession? You may well ask. Especially as most of the fighting took place in Germany anyway. Please don’t expect logic in any of this.

So the anomalous possession of a piece of obviously Spanish territory gave Britain the right, or so it felt, to seize an Iranian oil tanker. It did so on the grounds that the tanker was breaching sanctions against Syria, contrary to decisions of the European Union. That’s ironic since Britain is hell-bent on leaving the European Union, but that clearly didn’t stop certain people thinking that EU law provided useful cover for doing what they wanted to do in the first place.

In passing, it’s actually questionable whether EU law really did. Carl Bildt, former Swedish Prime Minister and an expert on these questions, told the Guardian:

The legality of the UK seizure of a tanker heading for Syria with oil from Iran intrigues me. One refers to EU sanctions against Syria, but Iran is not a member of the EU. And the EU as a principle doesn’t impose its sanctions on others. That’s what the US does.

Spain claimed that, in reality, Britain was merely reacting to a demand from the US. Since the Americans have since made an attempt to seize the ship through the Gibraltar courts, it’s hard not to believe that this might, indeed, have been the case. It was US policy, rather than British, that led to the ship’s seizure.

So we have the curious spectacle of high-handed, possibly illegal, imperial action being taken by Britain. And yet it did so as no more than the poodle of the United States, a true imperial power where Britain, once a great power, is today a bit player in the game of global politics.

We didn’t have to wait long to have that proved to us. On 19 July, the Iranians seized the British tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz. Britain was powerless – literally – to act. It had a warship in the region, but far too far away to intervene. And in its much reduced state, it could only choose to send one more ship. Britannia once ruled the waves, but no more. Today it can’t provide military protection for its merchant navy.

Iran seizes the Stena Impero
Tit for tat, calling the bluff on British powerlessness

It no longer has the force to play the stooge for Trump’s US, let alone play with the big boys in its own right.

It might be wiser, you might think, for it learn the lesson and stop throwing its limited weight around. Indeed, it might be wiser if it stopped pretending that it was big enough to play on the world stage with the real powers of the world. The US is up there in the top tier, but even Iran is a major regional power. Britain? A minor power on the edge of Europe.

Which is why leaving our union with 27 nations in Europe is such a self-destructive move. We’ve demonstrated we can’t stand alone. But some old-Empire nostalgists are going to force us to try anyway.

The postscript to the Grace 1 story shows the only piece of wisdom in this whole sorry tale.

Gibraltar may be a quirk of history, at least insofar as belonging to Britain is concerned. But Gibraltarians have their heads screwed on properly. They voted massively against Brexit. And now the courts, followed by the territory’s first Minister Fabian Picardo, have shown the guts to stand up to the Americans. The court would not support the US claim to impound the ship. And the First Minister has released it.

Now that really is taking back control, the slogan of the Brexiters. However, it happened in opposition to US demands. Which we’ll certainly be far less able to resist once we leave the protection of the EU.

What Brexiters wish for and what they get may be entirely different things.