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The Bush Visit

[Ha'aretz] Shmuel Rosner and Aluf Benn - The visit by U.S. President George W. Bush next week was born when he was presented with the plan for his trip to the Gulf states. "Why shouldn't I go to Israel?" he asked his aides. "I've haven't been there since I became president." Even a weak American president is the most important leader in the world. However, his ability to persuade others is limited, as Bush's predecessor Bill Clinton learned in his last-minute attempts to achieve peace between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. There is no doubt that Iran will be the main issue on Bush's mind during his trip to this region. In the wake of the American National Intelligence Estimate concluding that Iran does not have a military nuclear program, Bush will want to reassure the rulers in the Gulf that they have American backing and support. Israel will ask Bush to hold a joint Israeli-American discussion of the significance of the intelligence estimate. Olmert will talk to Bush about the loss of momentum in the diplomatic effort to isolate Iran and to impose sanctions on it. After all, the sanctions were imposed because Iran was enriching uranium - which is still going on - and not because of Iran's military nuclear program.
2008-01-04 01:00:00
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