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Bush Gathers Assurances From European Leaders

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 06:00 CDT

By Jeffrey Stinson

LONDON -- President Bush ended his week-long European trip Monday, carrying home commitments from Europe's major leaders on Iran, Afghanistan and even Iraq.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave Bush the biggest round of support after two days of talks by promising to:

*Tighten sanctions against Iran, including a freeze on assets of Iran's biggest bank here, to stop its nuclear program. Brown said he would press the European Union for more sanctions on Iranian oil and natural gas. This week in Luxembourg, EU ministers will take up a plan that would freeze the foreign assets of Bank Melli.

*Send 230 British troops to an increasingly violent Afghanistan, reinforcing the 8,530 there. Britain's commitment to the NATO force fighting the insurgent Taliban is second only to the United States, which has 23,550 troops there.

*Keep the roughly 4,500 British troops in southern Iraq until the situation is stable enough to withdraw them.

"In Iraq, there is still work to be done, and Britain ... will continue to play its part," Brown said Monday at a joint news conference.

Bush told Brown, "You've been strong on Afghanistan and Iraq, and I appreciate it."

Brown's positive send-off was similar to promises Bush picked up at the start of his trip at a U.S.-European Union summit in Slovenia and again in Germany, Italy and France.

The commitments symbolize the warmer relationship Bush has had with European leaders in his second presidential term, even as he remains unpopular with the European public over the Iraq war.

"There's been a rapprochement across the Atlantic since 2004 at the elite level of policymakers," said Michael Cox, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. "The headline is: Compare 2008 to 2003, and lots has changed."

The reason: Anti-war sentiment has faded either from fatigue or because Bush will soon leave office.

One example is the drop in protests during this trip. The largest was Sunday in London with about 1,200 demonstrators. Five years ago, tens of thousands of people marched past Downing Street in three days of protests.

Also, Europe's leaders have changed during Bush's two terms. Germany and France, the two nations most strongly opposed to the Iraq war, now have leaders more in tune with Bush. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has worked to forge ties with Washington. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is so pro-American that he has the nickname "Sarko l'Americain."

Merkel joined Bush on Wednesday in threatening more economic sanctions against Iran unless it halts its nuclear development program. Like Bush, she fears Iran is developing a bomb, although Tehran insists it wants to generate electricity.

Sarkozy, with Bush at his side, said it would be "totally unacceptable" for Iran to get a nuclear bomb.

Bush deserves credit, too, for the improved relations, Cox said. Bush abandoned his unilateral strategy toward Iraq in favor of building alliances to achieve global strategic aims.

That was a major theme throughout Bush's trip, such as his statement Monday about combating terrorism after talking with Brown: "We've got to work together to protect our people."

Bush has made several trips to Europe in the past seven years to promote a stronger alliance. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi noted Thursday that Bush has visited Italy six times.

"This has been an extremely successful trip," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Monday. "We've been able to advance the policy agenda as a result of this trip."

Before returning to Washington, Bush stopped in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to punctuate what he wants to achieve around the globe with Europe's help.

Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland ended generations of strife and have jointly governed for the past year after decades of British rule.

It's a "success story," Bush said, that is a lesson for warring factions in Iraq and other parts of the world. (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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