Bush Urges Allies to Join U.S. Efforts to Confront Iran
President Makes Appeal During Eight-Day Trip Through Middle East Region
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Jan 13 -- President Bush accused Iran Sunday of undermining peace in Lebanon, funding terrorist groups, trying to intimidate its neighbors and refusing to be open about its nuclear program and ambitions.The reaction from the Arab leaders has been to smile and say we will get back to you because they are all going around around Bush in an attempt to stabilize the area - they know that the Bush administration won't.
In a speech described by the White House as the centerpiece of his eight-day trip to the Middle East, Bush tried to speak directly to the people of Iran as he urged nations to help the United States "confront this danger before it is too late."
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Bush is trying to persuade Arab countries to join U.S. efforts to pressure Iran, though many have displayed ambivalence about the administration's campaign amid a new U.S. intelligence report that concluded Iran stopped a nuclear weapons program in 2003.
The president will travel Monday to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, viewed by many inside and out of the administration as the lynchpin of its efforts to develop an anti-Iran coalition.Of course Saudi Arabia has been talking to Iran with out the Bush administration.
As I reported yesterday Michael Hirsh of Newsweek reported that Bush was trying to negotiate a long-term U.S-Iraq pact to keep US troops in Iraq for years. As I said yesterday it's not going to happen. The Iraqi Parliament will never approve such an agreement and if al-Maliki attempts to do it unilaterally he will be driven from office and the government will fall. He knows it so he will just smile and agree to talk about and just wait until Bush is out of office.
George W. Bush has no influence anywhere in the world. Everyone is just waiting out the end of the Bush administration with a polite smile.
