PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
17 April 2008
Bush, Great Britain’s Brown Call for New Iran Sanctions
Anglo-American talks cover gamut of “special relationship”
Washington -- New international sanctions are needed to convince Iran to suspend its controversial nuclear program, join international talks and benefit from a standing offer of support for a civil nuclear program, say President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“The United States, in working with Britain and France and Germany, the United Nations Security Council, is all aiming to say to the Iranians: ‘Verifiably suspend your program, and there's a better way forward for you,’” Bush said following an April 17 meeting with Brown at the White House.
Brown said he will meet with European leaders to build on three rounds of U.N. Security Council restrictions against doing business with Iran, including possible new measures preventing investments in Iranian liquefied natural gas.
“Iran continues to defy the will of the international community, and we are agreed on the need to strengthen the sanctions regime and ensure these sanctions are effectively implemented,” Brown said.
Wide-ranging discussions also covered the full spectrum of security, diplomatic and economic issues that make up the Anglo-American “special relationship.”
Bush briefed Brown on recent reports from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus. The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to helping Afghanistan confront extremists and recover from decades of conflict and poverty.
The leaders discussed the Darfur region of Sudan, with Bush calling on the Untied Nations to step up its deployments to the joint U.N.-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. Also discussed was the situation in Burma, with Bush and Brown saying political reconciliation there was long past due.
Bush praised Brown for his strong April 16 statement at the United Nations condemning Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and the ongoing crisis over the country’s disputed presidential elections.
“You can't have elections unless you're willing to put the results out,” said Bush. “Some in the region have spoken out against violence. More leaders in the region need to speak out. And the United Nations and the AU must play an active role in resolving the situation in Zimbabwe.”
The two leaders also announced initiatives to confront global hunger and disease, including a plan to train health care workers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia, as well as an effort to engage the World Bank, the U.N. World Food Programme and agricultural producers to address global food supply disruptions.
GLOBAL ECONOMY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
A former finance minister, Brown also expressed concern about the state of the world economy, where he says recent conditions point to the need for new tools to meet emerging challenges.
“It's important that there is coordination across the Atlantic, indeed coordination between all the major industrial powers, so that we can all contribute, what each of us can on each continent, to the process of restoring both confidence in the world economy and stability and growth,” Brown said.
As both countries prepare for the 2008 G8 Summit of leaders of industrialized nations in Japan, Bush and Brown pledged to do their part to stabilize the global economy by renewing attention to transparency and risk management, dialogue between energy-producing and -consuming nations and other measures to strengthen the global financial system.
“We have a credit crunch; we have rising food prices because of what's happening in Asia; we have rising oil prices because of instability, and also the lack of supply from the oil producers,” Brown said in an April 17 interview with National Public Radio.
Before arriving in Washington, Brown met in New York with Wall Street bankers and called for a more effective “early warning system” among financial groups around the world for better monitoring of future financial downturns, well as a re-examination of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which he said were “built in 1945 for the problems of 1945 ... for countries with sheltered economies.”
Bush and Brown also reaffirmed their shared commitment to free trade, calling for continued progress in the World Trade Organization trade liberalization negotiations known as the Doha round. “The worst signal we could send during this global uncertainty is that the world is going to become more protectionist and less willing to open up markets,” Bush said.
While in Washington, Brown also met with all three 2008 presidential hopefuls, Democratic Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain.
“What I was convinced of, after talking to each of them and talking about the issues that concern them and concern the world, is that the relationship between America and Britain will remain strong,” Brown said.
