UK branded 'absolutely nuts' for letting China build mega-embassy in London
Forget Israel, Iran, and the Middle East - Britain and the West should be petrified at the unchecked rise of China, and prospect of a spying base in the heart of London, says former US Army hero, Secretary of State, and CIA chief Mike Pompeo
There will be no two-state solution in the Middle East, but that's the least of the West's concerns, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
The decorated ex US Army officer, who served boss of America's Central Intelligence Agency, said the prospect of peace between Israel and Palestine is unrealistic.
His prophecy came as US President Donald Trump hailed "potentially one of the great days ever in civilisation" in a peace deal that calls for an immediate ceasefire, Hamas disarmament, and Israeli withdrawal.
But Mr Pompeo, 61, said Britain should be more worried about the unchecked threat of China, warning that nodding through a new super-embassy in the heart of London was complete madness and a Europe-wide security danger.
Major security concerns have been flagged as Beijing seeks to create a 700,000 sq ft base on the site of former Royal Mint buildings.
The sprawling complex includes “two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel”, with their exact use redacted for security reasons.
The sinister plans have sparked panic in Washington with the UK Government told approving the plans would be “gifting the Chinese Communist government with the largest embassy in Europe”.
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Delivering a chilling warning during an exclusive interview for The Rest Is Politics: Leading with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, Mr Pompeo said: “You all are about to let 200 Chinese diplomats come occupy a new embassy. That’s nuts. Absolutely nuts.
“There won’t be a single diplomat among them. They will all be elements of the Chinese national security apparatus as narrowly understood.
”China presents a much greater, deeper threat, for sure.
“It has both the capability and the intention of undermining the post-World War II Western model — basic liberty, liberalism, historically grounded liberalism.
“They want to upend it. They’re going to take a good swing at it.”
Plans for the embassy, near the Tower of London, were blocked by the previous government after British intelligence agencies and Scotland Yard objected on the grounds that sensitive data cables that run nearby could be vulnerable to attack by Chinese spies.
The Chinese government purchased Royal Mint Court – in the borough of Tower Hamlets – in 2018. It was originally the site of a medieval abbey before it was rebuilt to house the Royal Mint in 1830.
Their current embassy – a grand complex in Marylebone – was established in 1877.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp previously said: "It is likely to become a base for their pan-European espionage activities and it sits very close to the UK's financial centre.
"We've seen the Chinese government cracking down on dissidents, running secret police stations in the UK, even putting bounties on the heads of dissidents, some of whom I've met. We should not be giving permission to this."
Donald Trump holds press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu
As US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 20-point peace plan for "eternal peace in the Middle East" - conditional on Hamas accepting the terms of the deal - Mr Pompeo shattered the long-held hope warring states can coexist saying: “First of all, there’s no possibility of a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine). It’s gone.
“As long as you have terrorists governing those spaces, that real estate and those people, you can’t have a state — at least a state as we would understand the normality of a state.
“The reality is, no. I think what the Israelis are doing is not only appropriate but necessary. It is necessary for nations to protect themselves from those that are trying to kill them.
“This is about Tehran. This is about Iran. Hamas is a tool of the Iranian regime.”
In June, President Trump ordered a ferocious bunker-busting bomb blitz to destroy Iranian sites said to be harbouring the hardware and know-how to create weapons of mass destruction
The pariah state denied it was secretly developing weapons claiming its programme was for domestic purposes.
Israel ordered Operation Rising Lion because it believed Tehran was “bringing us to the brink of nuclear war”.
Mr Netanyahu - largely isolated internationally and slapped with a war crimes warrant issued by the International Criminal Court - has rebuked Britain for a “disgraceful decision" to officially recognise the State of Palestine.
President Trump also criticised the major diplomatic shift as a gift to Hamas.
