Bush Iran Obsession "Only A Smattering Of Polite Applause"

Bush Iran Obsession “Only A Smattering Of Polite Applause”

Bush says Iran threat to world security ABU DHABI (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush accused Iran on Sunday of threatening security around the world by backing militants and urged his Gulf Arab allies to confront “this danger before it is too late”.

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, the third stop of his tour of Arab allies, Bush said Shi’ite Muslim Iran was the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism and accused it of undermining peace by supporting the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Shi’ite militants in Iraq.

“We exercised restraint and we very calmly announced that this was a routine procedure but they tried to … raise this issue at the same time when Mr Bush was travelling to the region in order to paint Iran in a negative light,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

Bush urges Gulf to back him on Iran Speaking in a lavish, gold-encrusted hotel in Abu Dhabi, Mr Bush used the signature speech of his tour of the Middle East to denounce Tehran as the “world’s leading sponsor of state terror”.

“Iran‘s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,” Mr Bush said. “So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it’s too late,” he said.

… unclear how the United Arab Emirates – a staunch ally of the United States – would react to Mr. Bush’s request that it play a bigger role in regional security.

Leaders of this oil-rich Gulf State are increasingly wary of Iran‘s growing influence and see their stability as intimately linked to the US.

However, the UAE‘s booming economy is closely tied to Iran, its biggest trading partner. Nearly half a million Iranians live in the Emirates, with about 10,000 Iranian firms operating in its commercial capital of Dubai. (New home of Halliburton)
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, visited last year, he was greeted with warm embraces from local rulers.

They fear a US attack on Iran could bring retaliation against American military bases in the region and sever lucrative trade through the Stait of Hormuz.

Analysts now say the UAE will have a difficult time reconciling Washington‘s call for support with its economic ties to Iran.

The Emirates’ “economic miracle” — double-digit growth and a flood of foreign investment – is often credited to its credo that politics and business don’t mix.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nuhayyan, President of the UAE, did not make any public commitments after Mr Bush’s address, which received only a smattering of polite applause.

“Iran‘s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late,” Bush said in his keynote speech.

Bush had not raised the issue of Iran in either Kuwait or Bahrain, waiting instead to hit out at the Tehran regime from the UAE capital in his Middle East tour keynote address.

The War on Terror begins at home, Mr. Bush. For whatever reason the wars in the Middle East began, US Foreign Policies and aggressive tactics have created more terrorists than we began with. For every ONE terrorist the US kills, TWO or more are created. Two for one is not a way to end terrorism! US Foreign Policy carries out the wishes of the sitting administration. The US State Department must spout the language from the dysfunctional self-serving script they are given. US Diplomats must endure the criticism they receive from Foreign Diplomats expected to swallow this administration’s dysfunctional ideas, based on a pre-conceived agenda of securing Middle East oil. Encouraging Middle East Nations to endorse the failed obsession from a lame duck administration is too much to ask. Middle East economies are intertwined and mutually reliant on the concept; “business and politics are not mixed”.

By trying to justify US motivations for aggression by engaging religion has backfired. Extremists from Muslim and Christian factions have taken over and created their own spin-off conflict. While anticipation of more rational leadership in 2009 may assuage world anxiety a little, Bush continuing to push the Iran button is frightening. He continues to slam Iran and manufacture incidents to justify engagement before he leaves office. Hopefully, the rest of the Middle East can be patient long enough to allow this era to pass away with only a sour memory instead of smoldering craters.