When the US launched air strikes on Syria last year it failed to notify foreign allies of the plan, according to a new book which details how Rex Tillerson refused to take phone calls from his Nato counterparts as they scrambled to find out what was going on.
The decision last April to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base implicated in a chemical attack was one of Donald Trump’s most consequential decisions of his first months in office.
Yet, Ronan Farrow, author of War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence, details how the administration skipped the conventional step of warning Washington’s Nato partners.
“When news broke, alarmed allies… were calling,” according to the official charged with placing Mr Tillerson’s calls.
Although the secretary of state was in Washington, staff were told he would not take calls.
“He is not a proactive seeker of conversations,” is how the officer in the State Department’s Operations Centre put it.
The Rex Tillerson – Donald Trump relationship
Excerpts from the book are published in the latest edition of the New Yorker magazine, including an interview in which Mr Tillerson suggested a key White House figure – assumed to be Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law – sowed instability by promoting rumours of his anticipated dismissal.
“I know who it is. I know who it is. And they know I know,” he said.
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