By Samuel Burke, CNN
It's no surprise that David Cameron was the first world leader to congratulate Obama on his reelection Tuesday, considering the two countries' “special relationship” – the term coined by Winston Churchill half a century ago.
But the British Prime Minister also sees big challenges ahead. Cameron has pointed to the global economy and Syria as two issues that need to be tackled immediately.
“I want to talk to Barack about is how we must do more to try and solve this crisis,” Cameron said in Jordan Wednesday.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Wednesday, Britain's Ambassador in Washington D.C., Sir Peter Westmacott, says the U.K. is starting to talk more intensively to some of the opposition elements there; and that the United States is taking the initiative to bring together some of the opposition elements inside and outside Syria.
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At the same time, Westmacott says the U.K. is working with a number of regional governments– including the Turks, Qataris and Saudis– to put more pressure on the Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
For months world leaders have said that the longer the crisis in Syria goes on, the more sectarian violence there will be. Now, that appears to be happening.
“If there were easy answers in Syria, we would have come up with them and we would have been implementing them long ago,” Westmacott told Amanpour.
The U.K. does not want to get directly involved with the supply of lethal equipment and Westmacott reiterated that “boots on the ground” is not an option.
Iran
As for Iran, Britain is involved in negotiations over their nuclear program; but after years of work, Westmacott says they haven’t had the “results that we would like.”
“I think the most important thing is that we find a way of stopping Iran acquiring nuclear weapons or a nuclear weapons capability. We've got a policy out there, a mixture of sanctions and outreach.”
Amid speculation that the U.S. and Iran might have direct talks now that the U.S. elections have finished, Westmacott signaled to Amanpour that the U.S. and Iran working outside of the international framework might be productive.
“What we need to do is to see whether there is a deal that can be struck with the Iranian authorities. If that is done bilaterally, through the United States and Iran… I think the rest of us will be delighted.”