Bush Pivots to Arab Side of Peace Dispute

[unhappycamper]

Bush Pivots to Arab Side of Peace Dispute
May 17, 2008
Associated Press

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - President Bush pivoted to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute on Saturday, but he may well get a less glowing reception than he did in Israel earlier this week.

Bush opened two days of talks here with a string of leaders key to U.S. goals in the region: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Sunday, Bush is meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and several Iraqi leaders.

Bush, who flew to Egypt after having breakfast in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah, also had planned to see Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora while he was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, but that session fell off his schedule amid turmoil in Lebanon.

The militant group Hezbollah overran Beirut neighborhoods last week in protest of measures aimed at the group by Saniora's government. The display of military power by the Shiite militant group resulted in the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. But on Thursday, Saniora's government reached a deal with Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, after Lebanon's Cabinet reversed measures aimed at reining in the militants.

Bush was seeing Mubarak in a formal meeting session as well as over lunch at a luxury hotel overlooking the sea. The Egyptian leader, nearly three decades in power, could be an unlikely partner for Bush's push to spread freedom in the Middle East.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/bush-pivots-to-arab-side-of-peace-dispute.html