Boris Johnson’s Two Biggest Problems Are One and the Same
LONDON—British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has barely been in the job 24 hours, but he is already short on time to deal with not one, but two full-blown international crises—and they may yet collide into each other.
On September 5, two days after Parliament returns to work following a six-week summer recess, an Iranian-imposed deadline for European powers to relieve an American effort to strangle its economy is set to expire, and no one knows what happens then.
This September pinch point, which could see a rapid escalation in tensions between Tehran and Washington, will come just as Britain enters a two-month race to meet its latest Brexit deadline—the country is set to leave the European Union on October 31, but no agreement setting the terms of its withdrawal has yet been approved by London. Johnson has promised to take the United Kingdom out of the EU by then, deal or no deal.
The two crises pose enormous, intermingled questions for both Johnson and his country, exposing the raw dilemma at the heart of Brexit: Will
