George Bush backs rhetoric with $20bn arms...

[Steve Gardner]

...offer to counter Iran

So, having been forced to suffer the humiliation of an NIE report that essentially cleared Iran of being an imminent nuclear threat, Bush nonetheless plows ahead, arguing they are a threat to world peace and agreeing $multi-billion arms deals on the back of such claims.

Source: The Times

Sonia Verma, of The Times, in Dubai

President Bush today backed his political rhetoric against Iran with the promise of a $20 billion (£10.2 billion) arms deal to boost the military clout of Washington's key allies in the Gulf.

The sale, which could still be blocked by Congress, would see an array of weapons including Patriot missiles and precision-guided bombs parcelled out to Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, to counter Iran.

The announcement was timed to coincide with Mr Bush's arrival in Riyadh where he sought to enlist further support from King Abdullah for his ongoing campaign against Tehran.

However, the President's central message of his Middle East tour — that Gulf States need to confront Iran — has so far failed to gain much traction in this troubled region. The Sunnimajority countries that have played host to the Mr Bush so far are intensely wary of Iran's ambitions, but are also deeply sceptical about Mr Bush's estimates of its nuclear capabilities.

While most of the Arab leaders who have met the President expressed cautious optimism over his latest attempt to broker a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians, they have remained notably silent on Iran.

The arms sale is seen as key to Washington's strategy of shoring up support for its efforts to isolate Tehran. However, it is unclear how far the Gulf States will go in backing Mr Bush at the risk of antagonising neighbouring Iran.

“Nobody's going to back any kind of military action. Everybody knows Iran is just too big. This is not our agenda,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of Political Science at Emirates University in the UAE, where Mr Bush delivered his keynote speech yesterday.

Washington and Riyadh are long-time allies. Under the new arms deal, Saudi Arabia will to receive $9 billion of weapons.

King Abdullah delivered a diplomatic coup for Mr Bush when he attended the Annapolis talks with Israel last November. However observers anticipated that the two leaders could clash in current talks. Iran opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and opposes its strike on Iran.

Mr Bush spoke out recently against a Saudi court verdict condemning a gang-rape victim to 200 lashes. The criticism was seen as contributing to King Abdullah's decision to issue a pardon to the 19-year-old woman.

The timing of the leaders' talks tonight was the topic of much discussion among those traveling with the President on Air Force One. King Abdullah, a notorious night-hawk invited Mr Bush to his palace for a 9pm meeting, which is said to be when the President normally retires for the night.

Asked by a reporter if the meeting was the latest ever attended my Mr Bush, Steve Hadley, the National Security Advisor, replied: “I don't know. It sort of depends on which time zone - are we on Washington time? Are we on Saudi time? I don't know.”

[Steve Gardner]

What's interesting about this is that, whilst both Bush and Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki make claims in relation to the other's sponsorship of terrorism in the region, it's Mottaki who's being more truthful.

Yes, Iran has links to terrorist organisations, but it is not, as Bush claims, the "world's leading sponsor of terror." That title belongs to the US who, as Mottaki rightly asserts, is "the main cause of extremism in the region as it has been supporting terrorist and extremist groups during the past six years."

In fact, as Iran knows only too well, the US has been meddling in the affairs of democratic countries for decades now, including overthrowing their lesders when they don't allow the West the kind of access it wants to its oil, as was the case with Operation Ajax in 1953.

Source: CNN

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- President Bush used his visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to push for increased oil production to help the U.S. economy by forcing fuel costs down.

Oil prices have peaked at $100 a barrel and are hovering just below triple digits, adding to fears that historically high fuel prices could help push the U.S. economy into recession.

"Oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy," Bush said on the second day of his visit to the Islamic kingdom -- one of the key members of the OPEC oil cartel.

"I would hope, as OPEC considers different production levels, that they understand that if ... one of their biggest consumers' economy suffers, it will mean less purchases, less gas and oil sold," Bush said.

Saudi King Abdullah huddled with Bush on Monday night, and the two leaders were to meet again Tuesday.

"We've got a lot of things to talk about, but I want to assure you it's in the spirit of friendship," Bush said.

The president also was expected to attend a "Roundtable with Saudi Entrepreneurs" hosted at the U.S. Embassy.

Saudi Arabia is the fifth of a six-nation tour of Middle East nations that Bush began last week aimed at garnering support for Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and shoring up regional security against terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had been traveling with the president, arrived Tuesday in Iraq on an unannounced visit to meet with Iraqi officials. Rice plans to press Iraqi leaders for more progress on political reconciliation among the nation's many factions, said an official with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

While in Saudi Arabia, Bush also issued a stern warning to Iran in the wake of a January 6 confrontation between U.S. Navy and Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

"So the Iranians ... better be careful and not be provocative and get out there and cause an incident," Bush told reporters. "Because there's going to be serious consequences. What I said in my statement was, if they hit one of our ships there's going to be serious consequences. And I meant it."

On Monday, the Bush administration announced a proposed weapons sale to Saudi Arabia as part of a Persian Gulf security strategy to counter threats posed by Iran's rising influence in the region.

The proposed $20 million arms deal includes the sale of 900 "joint direct attack munitions" worth close to $120 million, said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the committee would examine the deal.

"We need to be convinced that the sale makes sense militarily and ensure that it in no way harms our security or those of our allies," Biden, D-Delaware, said in a news release. "We must also make certain that the administration does not just try to use a few arms sales to substitute for the comprehensive, coherent strategy we need for the region."

Top Iranian officials have slammed Bush's Mideast tour -- one of them saying the American leader was attempting to stir up "Iranophobia," a state-run Iranian news agency reported.

Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency on Monday cited the comments of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Ala'eddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

Bush, in a speech Sunday in Abu Dhabi, labeled Iran as the "world's leading sponsor of terror" and asked allies to join the United States in confronting Iran "before it's too late."

But Mottaki -- who made his remarks to Al-Jazeera news network Sunday -- said the United States "was the main cause of extremism in the region as it has been supporting terrorist and extremist groups during the past six years."

He said Bush was trying to foment tensions in the Persian Gulf over the Strait of Hormuz confrontation.

The report paraphrased Boroujerdi as saying Bush's talk about Iran "is the saber-rattling of a defeated man."

Mottaki called the American version of the Hormuz incident fabricated, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.

The report paraphrased Mottaki as saying that "fanning the fuel of Iranophobia was the objective of Bush's visit to the region."

So far on his Mideast tour, the president has visited Israel, the West Bank, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. He plans a stop in Egypt before returning to Washington.