By Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the United States.
The streets around the 9/11 Memorial plaza in lower Manhattan were barricaded, with the U.S. Secret Service scanning for weapons at limited access points.
The king and queen laid a bouquet of flowers at the memorial, where waterfall-ringed reflecting pools mark the footprints of the World Trade Center twin towers, destroyed when Islamist militants flew two planes into the skyscrapers.
A note on the flowers, in the king’s handwriting, read: “We honour the memory of all those who so tragically lost their lives on 11th September 2001, and stand in enduring solidarity with the American people in the face of such profound loss. Charles R Camilla R.”
The royal couple was also expected to speak with relatives of victims of the attack, which killed nearly 2,800 people in New York City.
They also planned to meet New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the ceremony, as well as with the governors of New York and New Jersey.
The king and queen’s visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress, held a private meeting with President Donald Trump, and sat down with leaders of the U.S. tech industry.
IRAN TENSIONS
The trip comes during a tense time in relations between the U.S. and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.
At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump said Charles agreed with him that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Wednesday, that “The King is naturally mindful of his government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”
Britain was one of the countries alongside the U.S. that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran’s nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors, until Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement during his first White House term.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes.
URBAN FARMING
After the 9/11 memorial, King Charles will head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity. Such projects have been a passion of the king for decades.
Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a “literary engagement” event.
The queen’s New York Public Library visit will include 100 guests from the British and U.S. literary, cultural and publishing worlds, the palace said. Camilla will then meet with representatives of domestic violence charities in the area.
Charles and Camilla’s visit to New York came on the third day of their state visit to the U.S. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s declaration of independence from British rule.
During his speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, Charles stressed the historical military and cultural ties between Britain and the United States.
The king also stressed the importance of NATO, at a time when Trump has been critical of the Western military alliance’s reluctance to provide military help to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and warned against American isolationism.
(Reporting by Tim Reid, Jonathan Allen and Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Tim Reid; Additonal reporting by Michael Holden and William James in London; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Keith Weir and Chris Reese)
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