LONDON: US President Donald Trump has, in a U-turn, withdrawn US support for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius, calling it a “big mistake” and saying the claims made on the island “are fictitious”.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump called the 99-year lease Starmer has negotiated for the largest island, Diego Garcia, which hosts a joint UK-US military base, in exchange for handing over sovereignty of the entire archipelago to Mauritius "tenuous, at best”. He wrote: “This land should not be taken away from our ally” and said the US may use the military base in the event of a war with Iran. He wrote that the UK “have to remain strong in the face of Wokeism…DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!”
