WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Britain’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that any threat to the Good Friday Agreement which ended the violence in Northern Ireland had come from the European Union’s politicisation of the Brexit talks, and not from London.
The British government announced draft legislation last week which it acknowledges would violate its international legal obligations and undercut parts of the divorce deal, because it wanted to guarantee trade access to Northern Ireland.
That has put the Brexit trade talks at risk.
“The threat to the Good Friday Agreement, as it is reflected in the Northern Ireland protocol, comes from the EU’s politicisation of the issue, … our commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and to avoid any extra infrastructure at the border at the north and the south is absolute,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. (Writing by Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge in London)