LONDON: British finance minister Rachel Reeves on Tuesday hit out at the “folly” of US President Donald Trump launching a war with Iran “without a clear exit plan”.
The comments to the Daily Mirror newspaper came as Reeves prepared to head to Washington for an International Monetary Fund meeting set to detail the economic impact of the conflict.
Reeves is one of several British government ministers, including the premier Keir Starmer, to express growing exasperation at the actions in the Middle East of its close ally.
“This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want,” Reeves, who is struggling to fire up Britain’s anaemic economy, told the tabloid.
“I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve,” she added.
The war, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes against Iran, has destabilised the global economy and seen Tehran virtually shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for oil and liquefied natural gas.
It has led to soaring energy prices and undermined the British government’s attempts to counter rising inflation and bring down borrowing costs.
“Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime, but to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly and it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world,” Reeves said.
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