Mideast negotiations now bypassing Washington

[tpsbmam]

Source: McClatchy

In a week of dramatic developments in the Middle East, the most dramatic development of all may have been the fact that the United States, long considered the region's indispensable player, was missing in action.

As its closest allies cut deals with their adversaries this week over the Bush administration's opposition, Washington was largely reduced to watching.

More painful for President Bush, friends he's cultivated — and spent heavily on — in Lebanon and Iraq asked the United States to remain in the background, underlining how politically toxic an association with the U.S. can be for Arab leaders.

.....

Others said that by refusing to talk to adversaries and using bristling "with-us-or-against-us" rhetoric, Bush has cut his administration out of the game. Under Bush, U.S. diplomats have had few substantive discussions with Iran, Syria, Hezbollah or the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which in 2006 won elections that the White House had pushed for.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/38319.html

[tekisui]

1. Another consequence of chimpy and condi.

When these countries negotiate around us, our interests are ignored. I don't think we need to be in there heavy-handedly demanding things, but we should be sitting at the table, and helping to facilitate discussions, and making our needs made clear.

[annabanana]

2. Thanks you putrid pile of self-involved crap.

You son of a thief and a theif's daughter..
You have ushered this Country into position of vulnerable irrelevancy..

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. you forgot illegitimate

because he and his policies have been real bastards.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Me and my cronies are doing a heckuva job. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"Yesiree, whether it comes to dip-loma-see, strategerizing, gas prices, the eek-onomy, or whatever, you can Depends on us republicons to do a heckuva job."

- Commander AWOL

[dipsydoodle]

4. That's the trouble with being a wanker

others just leave you to play with yourself.

[madrchsod]

5. the world is waiting for barack obama

the world is waiting for our petulant nation to grow up

[FarCenter]

10. The world had moved on

[unblock]

6. i'd say what a bunch of fucktards if i thought they actually wanted peace in the region

but they profit far too much from war and oil disruption....

[ohio2007]

7. willing to take control of their own destiny ? This is a most welcomed first

Why do they think the US has all the $ and all the answers to bring about peace ?

[Phred42]

8. It's about time they did. Nothing POSITIVE results from Bush Administration involvment.

in ANYTHING!

[stillcool]

9. all those bombs, and all that money...

...if other oil companies reap the rewards that would be a real kicker.

Israel, though, appears to have decided that it's worth trying to peel Syria away from its larger patron, Iran, Israel's principal adversary, and Syria seeks to retrieve the strategic Golan Heights, which it lost to Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.

Into the vacuum stepped Turkey, a large, pro-Western Muslim nation that has good ties to Israel and Syria. It gained credibility in the region for refusing to allow U.S. troops to use its territory to invade Iraq in 2003.

"Turkey has carved out the middle ground," said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Endowment's Middle East Center in Beirut. "It's a success story."

The proposed arms deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia is yet another example of a country trying to make inroads on traditional U.S. turf. Russia's state-controlled arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, has been marketing aggressively in the Arab world, according to a senior State Department official.

News reports from Moscow value the deal at $4 billion, although U.S. officials said it might be smaller