EU leader Michel lashes out at Britain over post-Brexit plan

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leader Charles Michel used the virtual pulpit of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday to lash out at Britain for its threats to renege on parts of the withdrawal treaty it signed with the EU and warned that the 27-nation bloc won't back down in the final weeks of acrimonious talks on a free-trade deal.

Michel made unmistakable references to the United Kingdom when he said that “respect for treaties, a basic principle of international law, comes to be considered optional even by those who, until recently, were its historical guarantors."

“All this in the name of partisan interests." he said in reference to the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The United Kingdom is a founding nation of the United Nations and a member of the Security Council, and the country has been a global diplomatic juggernaut for centuries.

Michel's ire was raised when Johnson said he would contemplate breaking an agreement he himself signed with the EU.

Johnson’s proposed a bill earlier this month that would disregard part of the Brexit withdrawal treaty dealing with trade between the EU's Ireland and the United Kingdom. The withdrawal agreement officially allowed the United Kingdom to leave the bloc last Jan. 31.

The EU insists the full withdrawal bill must be respected for fear that it otherwise might re-ignite tensions on the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland has special status in the withdrawal agreement because it is the only part of the U.K. that shares a land border with an EU country.

Britain and the EU jointly promised in the Brexit divorce agreement to ensure there are no customs posts or other obstacles on the Northern Ireland-Ireland border. The open border is key to the stability that underpins the 1998 peace settlement that ended decades of violence between Irish...