Experts: Mideast visit gained little

Bush asked the Saudi
government to increase
oil production.

COMBINED DISPATCHES

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush wraps up a weeklong tour of the Middle East today, leaving many Mideast political observers mystified as to the purpose of the visit and doubtful that the president made inroads on his twin campaigns for Arab-Israeli peace and isolation for Iran.

Bush is heading back to Washington mostly empty-handed, said several analysts and politicians throughout the region. Arab critics deemed Bush’s peace efforts unrealistic, his anti-Iran tirades dangerous, his praise of authoritarian governments disappointing and his defense of civil liberties ironic.

“There is no credibility to his words after what the region saw during his presidency,” said Mohamed Fayek, the Cairo, Egypt-based director of the nonprofit Arab Organization for Human Rights. He cited the war in Iraq, the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal. “American policy threw the region off-balance and destabilized it. The visit caused deep disappointment. I don’t see any results.”

Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also pressed Arab countries to do more to reach out to Israel and help achieve a Mideast peace agreement before the president’s term runs out next January. Avoiding specific orders to Arab allies, Rice said the delicate question of diplomatic relations with Israel, the Arab world’s historical enemy, was “another matter and undoubtedly down the road.”

“Skepticism on all sides is enormous,” said Nicholas Pelham, a Jerusalem-based senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Bush received a noncommittal response from the Saudi government to his request for increased oil production to reduce world oil prices. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi insisted production would increase only “when the market justifies it,” according to news reports from Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Bush didn’t back down on his warnings to Iran, which he has lambasted at nearly every stop on his eight-day journey. He reiterated in Saudi Arabia that a military option wasn’t out of the question, though he emphasized that he’d like to find a diplomatic solution to Iran’s defiant pursuit of a nuclear program and alleged funding of militants in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

However, many gulf countries appear to be moving closer to Iran over Washington’s objections. Iran’s firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appeared at an important gulf summit recently, and Iranian investors play vital roles in the economies of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq.

“I guess the visit was just about making sure the gulf doesn’t slip away toward Iran,” said Ghanim al-Najjar, the director of the Center for Strategic and Future Studies at Kuwait University. “All these issues will just stay on the surface because there is no environment to support action against Iran. Everything will stay on the level of rhetoric rather than reality.”

The only time that won Bush kudos in the Arab press was his call for Israel to end “the occupation that began in 1967.” But he quickly lost favor by holding up Israel as a regional example and defending embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The rest of the president’s trip was tightly controlled and swathed in the opulence that’s a hallmark of the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula. Bush was feted in majestic palaces and at luxurious oases. He held a falcon during a nighttime desert picnic in the United Arab Emirates. He chatted about democracy with a group of Kuwaiti women and smiled as a stream of Saudi military officers saluted him at a red-carpet welcoming ceremony in Riyadh.

Security was incredibly tight at the president’s destinations, often at great cost to the host countries and no small inconvenience to locals. The bustling Emirati city of Dubai was eerily empty as authorities declared a national holiday and cleared the streets on the day Bush arrived. While Arab anger over the visit was largely confined to the pages of newspapers and on Internet sites, modest demonstrations erupted in Bahrain, Egypt and the Palestinian territories.