Bush Optimistic in the Face of Iraqi Resistance
Despite two major challenges to the US from Iraq on Friday -- in the form of a breakdown in negotiations between the two nations over long-term plans for U involvement there and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's renewed call to arms against U forces in Iraq -- President Bush maintained a positive tone while discussing American-Iraqi relations on the Parisian leg of his current European tour .
Despite two major challenges to the U.S. from Iraq on Friday — in the form of a breakdown in negotiations between the two nations over long-term plans for U.S. involvement there and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s renewed call to arms against U.S. forces in Iraq — President Bush maintained a positive tone while discussing American-Iraqi relations on the Parisian leg of his current European tour.
Rock Solid JournalismThe Washington Post:
“If I were a betting man, we’ll reach agreement with the Iraqis,” Bush said. “You know, we’re there at their invitation; they’re a sovereign nation.”
Bush said the United States would “work hard to accommodate their desires,” but also said that “we believe that a strategic relationship with Iraq is important” both for the United States and the region.
Also on Saturday, Iranian leaders rejected a package of economic, technological and political incentives presented by the European Union’s top diplomat in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment activities. The package was finalized last month by Germany and the five members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
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We like to believe -- and newspapers and television like us to believe -- that the battle for Iran is being fought on the streets of Tehran, of Isfahan, of Najafabad Untrue The future of the nation is being decided in Qom, among the clerical leaders of Iranian Shia Islam; and one of the most influential of them -- perhaps the closest of all the ayatollahs to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- is silent.
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