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Discuss this article (1 Comments)Bush underwhelms Arab press
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Tuesday, 15 January 2008
OLD STORY: Abu Dhabi speech displayed ‘muddled thinking’ behind US foreign policy, according to the Saudi Gazette. (Getty Images)
Arab newspapers yesterdays accused US president George W. Bush of trotting out the "old, old story" of democracy and threatening Iran with the same rhetoric that prededed the Iraq invasion.
"The part about [Iran] intimidating neighbours with alarming rhetoric sounds suspiciously like the US these days, though the Bush administration uses its alarming rhetoric - followed by invasion - to intimidate countries."
It added: "And still, despite the heightened rhetoric, accusations and threats, the US refuses to hold direct talks with a country in which it has meddled for half a century.
"If this is the Bush definition of diplomacy, he needs to pick up a dictionary."
UAE newspaper, Gulf News, was equally unimpressed with Bush's Middle East tour on the final year of his eight-year presidency. Its editiorial was headlined: "Bush tells us the old, old story."
His speech in the Emirati capital on Sunday "failed to offer any specific policies, preferring to repeat a simplistic insistence on the introduction of democracy, freedom and justice in the region".
Bush's search for regime change in Iran was in stark contrast to the "more measured Arab approach" which attempts to "engage Iran in dialogue and work to find a mutual solution to differences", said the paper.
Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan said Bush needed to listen more to the people of the Gulf kingdom.
"Saudi Arabia has constantly drawn the attention of successive American administrations, and particularly that of George W. Bush, on the errors that they have committed in the Middle East," it said.
Al-Watan pointed to Washington's "flagrant alignment with Israel, right up to its attitude towards Iran, passing by the invasion of Iraq".
Back in the Emirates, the Khaleej Times said the best way to persuade Iran to reach a compromise over its nuclear ambitions was "diplomacy and peaceful engagement".
It added: "The Middle East and Gulf region, already suffering from two conflicts, cannot afford any more tensions. Peace and only peace is the way forward."
Official newspapers of Iran's closest ally Syria slammed Bush for his attempts to rally Arab allies around his policy of hostility toward Tehran.
"In asserting the security of Israel and trying to mobilise Arab hostility against Iran, Bush is drawing up a project of war," said the official daily Ath-Thawra.
"When Bush evokes the security of the Hebrew state... that signifies the suppression of the right of return of Palestinians" to the homes they fled after Israel was established in 1948, it added.
Al-Baath, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party in Syria, denounced Bush as the "Godfather of Abu Ghraib democracy" - referring to the prison outside Baghdad where US troops sexually and physically abused inmates.
The government's Tishrin daily addressed Bush directly, branding him an enemy of the Arabs, with "a million Iraqis having perished by the gunfire of the [American] army or because of it".
READERS' COMMENTS
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Bush underwhelms Arab press with boring Democracy Talk
Posted by Private Citizen X, Abu Dhabi, UAE on Wednesday 16 January 2008 at 09:52 UAE time
Ummm, you think Democracy talk is boring, eh?
Well I guess the US, Canadian and various European countries don't need to offer help to immigrants to escape tyranny and wars in their countries.
Ya, boring human rights...so dull ..so passe...
Posted by Private Citizen X, Abu Dhabi, UAE on Wednesday 16 January 2008 at 09:52 UAE time
Ummm, you think Democracy talk is boring, eh?
Well I guess the US, Canadian and various European countries don't need to offer help to immigrants to escape tyranny and wars in their countries.
Ya, boring human rights...so dull ..so passe...
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