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.
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“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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Tens of thousands of Iraqis, with remote guidance from Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, joined in a demonstration in Baghdad on Saturday to implore the Iraqi parliament to reject a security pact with the U.S. before the year's end.
Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a strong warning to the Iraqi government Saturday, claiming that he and his supporters will "declare a war until liberation" if a crackdown against his Mahdi Army continues.
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintained his defiant stance against the U.S. as intense fighting in Sadr City and Najaf claimed more lives this weekend, including that of a Sadr relative and supporter, Riyad al-Nuri.
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