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Report: UK diplomat warns of Obama's inexperience
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press
October 3, 2008

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's ambassador to the United States described Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama as intelligent but untested in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Daily Telegraph said Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald sent a letter to Brown describing the Illinois senator as someone who was still "finding his feet" when he "got diverted by his presidential ambitions."

"Although he has been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for four years, and a regular attender of meetings in his first two, there is little Obama track record to refer back to," the Telegraph quoted Sheinwald as saying in an article posted on its Web site. His letter warned that, if elected, the 47-year-old Obama would "have less of a track record than any recent president," according to the newspaper.

The Telegraph said the seven-page letter was sent to Brown on the eve of Obama's visit to Britain in July. Britain's Foreign Office and Brown's Downing Street office both declined to comment on the article.

Sheinwald also raised a question about Obama's stance toward Iran, suggesting it could conflict with the U.N. Security Council's demands that Iran stop enriching uranium before negotiations resume.

The Telegraph quoted Sheinwald as saying that, if Obama were elected, Britain would have to talk to him about what Sheinwald delicately called "the articulation between (a) (Obama's) desire for unconditional dialogue with Iran and (b) our and the (U.N. Security Council)'s requirement of prior suspension of enrichment before the nuclear negotiations proper can begin."

But Sheinwald, who previously worked as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official on the U.K.'s mission to engage Syria and Iran, reportedly approved of Obama's policy in Iraq.

"Whatever the detail, our own proposed transition in southeast Iraq would be consistent with Obama's likely approach," he was quoted as saying.

The Telegraph said the diplomat also had praise for Obama's speaking style and intellectual gifts -- it quoted Sheinwald as calling Obama "elegant," ''mesmerizing," and "highly intelligent."

The British embassy in Washington, where Sheinwald took up his appointment in October of last year, declined to comment on the report.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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