US President Barack Obama on Friday threatened Britain with being “left at the back of the pack” in trade relations with the United States if it decides to leave the European Union after the June 23 referendum.

“Some people may think that there will be a free trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, but that will not happen soon (…) The United Kingdom will be at the back of the pack,” he warned during a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
“We are focused on negotiations with the big bloc,” meaning the EU, he added. “The United States wants a strong United Kingdom as a partner and the United Kingdom excels when it helps lead a strong Europe,” he insisted.
Arriving in London for a four-day visit, Obama threw himself into the referendum fray, making a rousing plea for keeping his British ally in the EU, an issue that is tearing the country apart.
“The European Union does not diminish British influence: it amplifies it,” Obama wrote in a highly personal column published in the Daily Telegraph shortly after his arrival.
Cameron, for his part, stressed that the Free Trade Agreement (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the United States and the EU, “would save our economies billions.”
Your country would be excluded from this agreement if you left the EU.
“We are working hard to move this forward because it would save our economies billions and set an example for the rest of the world,” Cameron added.
The US president also ruled out sending ground troops to Libya. “There are no plans to (send) ground troops to Libya,” he said. “I don't think it's necessary. I don't think that would be welcomed by the new (Libyan) government. This would send the wrong signal.”
He also said he was “very concerned” about the truce in Syria, wondering “whether it will last.”
-“Anti-British President”-
Accompanied by his wife Michelle, Barack Obama began his fifth visit to the United Kingdom with a lunch with Elizabeth II, who had celebrated her 90th birthday the day before.
Under a grey sky, the Obama couple were greeted by the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, as they disembarked from the helicopter at the foot of Windsor Castle, some forty kilometres west of London.
The US president wished the Queen, “one of my favourite people”, on her birthday, he told reporters, and offered her “a personalised photo album of her various visits to the United States, showing her meetings with successive American presidents and their spouses”, according to the White House.
Brexiteers, for their part, denounced his statements and cried interference. “Do as I say, not as I do,” lamented the exuberant mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in the popular Sun newspaper, denouncing the “hypocrisy” and “inconsistency” of the American president.
Controversially, he also recalled Obama's Kenyan roots and unearthed the legend, though denied, according to which the American president had returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the British embassy upon his arrival at the White House in 2009.
“Obama doesn't like the British very much. His grandfather grew up in Kenya, a former British colony. He finds it hard to stand up to,” Ukip leader Nigel Farage told AFP. He denounced “the unwanted interference of the most anti-British American president ever.” “Thankfully, he will soon be leaving office,” he added.
On the contrary, “I love Winston Churchill, I love that guy,” Obama replied, noting that there is still a second bust on the second floor of his Washington residence, where he can see it every day. But in the Oval Office, where space is limited, “you will understand that as the first African-American president I thought it was appropriate to have a bust of Martin Luther King in my office” instead of Churchill, he added.
“Eurosceptics would do better to keep quiet. Mr Obama's unusual personal intervention could sway the undecided and strengthen the pro-EU camp,” said Richard G. Whitman, professor of international relations at the University of Kent.
According to a quick poll by Sky Data, 60% of Britons believe Obama should not intervene in the debate. But 25% say they are more inclined to vote in favour of remaining in the EU after his request, compared to 17% who think otherwise.

By Mohamad Ali Harissi – © 2016 AFP

World News, AFP