An unnamed senior State Dept official has been briefing the Sunday Telegraph about Condi’s frustration with Gordon Brown, it seems:
Allies of Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, have told The Sunday Telegraph that the Prime Minister should emulate France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and warn that Iran may face military action, in order to help avert a new war in the Middle East.
The concerns reflect growing irritation in Washington, from the White House down, that Mr Brown will not match his more robust private conversations on Iran with hard-hitting public statements that would put pressure on the Teheran regime …
A senior State Department official with close ties to Ms Rice said: “It would be helpful if he took a tougher line in public. We’ve got to convince Iran that the West will not tolerate them developing nuclear weapons. At the moment, I don’t think Iran takes the threat seriously. We need Iran, and the rest of the world, to realise that this is not just a bunch of crazy Americans on the one side and flaky Europeans on the other – that we are united on this one.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardner is quoted as saying that “Britain is clearly losing influence in Washington after Tony Blair. Brown is the invisible man in terms of his profile here. It should be of concern in London that France is muscling in on traditional British territory.” Steven Benen’s take on Talking Points Memo: “No one misses Tony Blair like George W. Bush. It’s kind of sad, really.”
