A concise summary of the views of the new British foreign secretary on the Middle East

"As far as British policy in the Middle East is concerned, we shall probably hear less of the customary guff about Britain calling on "all sides to exercise restraint"; Boris has already made clear where he stands. He's a fan of the repressive Gulf monarchies ("our dynamic friends") and of Israel ("Churchillian"). Last March, in a column headed "Bravo for Assad", he also celebrated the Syrian regime's recapture of Palmyra from ISIS. "