Gates Talks With Blair About New Iraq Strategy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON — President Bush’s new approach in Iraq and Britain’s plan to withdraw troops from southern Iraq were chief topics for Defense Secretary Gates in talks yesterday with Prime Minister Blair.
Mr. Gates told reporters he also wanted to discuss Afghanistan, where extremist violence has been on the rise. A meeting with Defense Minister Des Browne was on the schedule, too.
It was Mr. Gates’s second Iraq-related overseas trip since he took over for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld last month. It follows a week in which Mr. Bush’s plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq encountered a wave of skepticism in Congress and evoked no more than a tepid response in allied capitals.
Britain has plans to withdraw some of its 7,000 troops in Shiite-dominated Basra.
