‘He didn’t fully master things, he wasn’t on top of his brief’

Boris Johnson once quipped that he was the only western politician to face justice for crimes in Iraq but that was long before a short, ill-starred stint as the British foreign secretary.

After writing in 2003 about how he filched a cigar box from the ruined home of Saddam Hussein loyalist Tariq Aziz, UK police forced Mr Johnson to return the leather-bound case under UN sanctions provisions.

The Conservative leader was no novice in the region when he was made foreign secretary in 2016, but his record in office was not an unalloyed success.

As a leadership candidate, Mr Johnson’s campaign team have emphasised his time as Mayor of London: the chairman of the board who would delegate tasks to specialists. Little is made of his time as foreign secretary.

“When I look back, it’s the blunders that come through,” said Hugh Lovatt, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Gaffes that dogged his tenure included a suggestion that the central Libyan city of Sirte could become the next Dubai if locals would “clear the dead bodies”.

“There is always a ‘Boris factor’, where a lot of people sort of roll their eyes and say ‘oh, that’s just Boris’. That is definitely the perception in Europe but also the perception in some Arab capitals,” he said.

“Arab governments have proved themselves able to filter out some of the more egregious comments that might come from Boris but also some other people. They just brush off what Trump says, which is equally, if not more, egregious,” he said, referring to the US president’s call for Muslim foreign citizens to be denied entry to America.

While Mr Johnson’s charisma allowed some in the region to compartmentalise his comments, other instances of his failure to master his brief and propensity to get things wrong have had lasting consequences.

In late 2017, Mr Johnson was widely criticised for remarks he made on Tehran’s detention of the British-Iranian dual-national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Condemning her detention, he said the Thompson Reuters employee had been “simply teaching people journalism”.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family have always maintained that she was on holiday in Iran visiting family and her trip had nothing to do with her work at the company, which employed her as a project manager.

Days later, the former foreign secretary’s comments were cited in an unscheduled court hearing over Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year jail term as evidence she was involved in “propaganda against the regime”.

“This is an instance where he didn’t fully master things, he wasn’t on top of his brief, he wasn’t sufficiently precise with the words that he chose,” Mr Lovatt said. “But those are the kind of situations where that lack of preparation, or a seeming lack of preparation or carefulness can get you in trouble,” he said.

Mr Johnson’s reputation in government has led to a situation in which it is implied British intelligence officers may have withheld information from him as foreign secretary. Mr Johnson was not completely cut out of intelligence briefings but chiefs may not have been entirely open with him during

one-to-one meetings. “That would be down to the instincts of the individuals involved,” a source told British newspaper The Guardian.

Chris Doyle, director of The Council for Arab-British Understanding, said Mr Johnson’s first test as Prime Minister on Middle East issues would inevitably be Iran, as the UK deals with the seizure of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. But his approach will be as much dictated by what happens in Brussels and the US as at sea or in Tehran.

“Any incoming prime minister will first filter their Middle East approach through Washington and secondly with the European Union and that is going to be the same with Boris,” he said.

The constraints placed on Mr Johnson as he pursues his Brexit agenda means he will look for continuity in the Middle East, even if in the past he has been known for having his own unique approach.

“Britain has fairly warm relations with all the states excluding Iran and he won’t be wanting to put that at risk, given his other priorities,” Mr Doyle said.

“I just don’t think you can emphasise enough where his priorities are going to lie and it won’t be in pursuing some grand new Middle Eastern strategy.”

Edward Elliott, of the British Foreign Policy Group, said the former foreign secretary’s style could prove to be an asset in Downing Street, with many diplomats fond of his frankness and easy manner in public.

“A lot of people really like Boris, find him very personal, find him very funny,” Mr Elliott said. “If people like the jokes and the personal attention that he will quite often give, then it will create a better platform.”