International News

LONDON, (APP/AFP) – US President Barack Obama
plunged into Britain’s poisonous European Union membership debate
Friday, arguing strongly against a “Brexit” as he kicked off a
visit to the UK.
Obama’s intervention ahead of the June 23 vote in a piece
for the Daily Telegraph newspaper drew a furious response from
eurosceptics like London Mayor Boris Johnson, who said he should
mind his own business.
Writing in the Telegraph, a traditional bastion of
euroscepticism, Obama argued that Britain’s place in the EU
magnifies its global influence and its membership is a matter of
“deep interest” to the United States.
“I realise that there’s been considerable speculation —
and some controversy — about the timing of my visit,” Obama
wrote.
Noting that he wanted to mark the 90th birthday of Queen
Elizabeth II on Thursday in person — he and First Lady Michelle
Obama will at lunch at Windsor Castle later Friday — the president
was also unusually forthright about his country’s interest in
Britain’s EU membership.
Stressing that the choice was purely for the British people,
he wrote: “I will say, with the candour of a friend, that the
outcome of your decision is a matter of deep interest to the
United States.