Guardian: Rise of new powers puts Anglo-American relations in shade - by Julian Borger and Ewen MacAskill

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Rise of new powers puts Anglo-American relations in shade

- by Julian Borger and Ewen MacAskill

The revelation that the British government was assuring Libya that it did not want Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to die in jail came as a surprise to the Americans, who had been told the Lockerbie bomber would live out his full sentence in Scotland.The White House has largely ducked comment after its initial criticism of the release. "There's a reason for that. We want to draw a line under it," said one official. Hillary Clinton and the politicians in Washington were just going through the motions," said Tomas Valasek, the director of foreign policy and defence at the Centre for European Reform. "When you survey the world from the White House, Europe is still a small part of what the US sees, and Britain is just a small part of Europe," Valasek said. "People in Washington say we want to have a special relationship, but we need that relationship with Europe as a whole. We need more than Britain can provide."