It’s quite possible, as Marc Lynch notes, that Bush’s latest trip will go down in history as “one of the strangest and most pointless visits to the Middle East of any world leader.” Indeed, it’s hard to come up with any concrete achievements either on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, or with regards to containing Iran. Lots of talk, much shaking of hands and kissing of cheeks, but few actual commitments. The Sunni states played nice with the president but they gave him little. No surprise there – along with the strategic decision by most Sunni Arab countries to spurn our hostile containment policy towards Iran, there is also very strong pressure from the Arab street to reject cooperation with the United States. (Photo: an Egyptian protestor holds a welcome sign which reads, “The entrance of dogs is forbidden.”)
As IPS News notes:
According to regional analysts, except for getting closer to a 40 billion US dollar arms sales deal with the Arab Gulf countries…Bush failed to make any headway on the other issues.
Bush is seen, not unlike how Nixon was viewed internationally during Watergate, as having little credibility and extremely limited political capital. With only a few months left in his term, and having adopted policies for seven years that have been widely condemned in the region, his weak attempts at peace in Israel-Palestine are the subjects of numerous jokes in the Arab press, and his effort to build a Sunni Arab alliance against Iran is viewed with great skepticism.
In fact, with regards to this last goal, the Gulf States have been ruthless in their criticism of Bush’s Iran policy, flatly rejecting the American stance time and time again. The Saudi foreign minister, for example, had this to say:“Saudi Arabia is Iran’s neighbour. We are keen that harmony and peace should prevail among states of the region. We have relations with Iran and we speak regularly to them. If we sense any threat, we will speak to them (Iran) about it.” Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, not to be outdone, said: “My country knows who is our friend and who is our enemy, and Iran is our friend.”
Talk about an underwhelming success.