Region | Palestinian Territories

Bush defends Middle East policy despite Iraq missteps

President Bush offers a sweeping and optimistic defence of his Middle East policy in a new speech on Friday, calling the region "a freer, more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001".

  • By Dan Eggen, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
  • Published: 23:53 December 6, 2008
  • Gulf News

Washington: President Bush offers a sweeping and optimistic defence of his Middle East policy in a new speech on Friday, calling the region "a freer, more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001".

Addressing an area of the world that has dominated and bedeviled much of his presidency, Bush argues that unseating Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain was justified despite numerous missteps and portrays Iraq as "a powerful example of a moderate, prosperous, free nation".

Bush also sees "important progress" in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reiterates that the United States cannot allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

"I believe that the day will come when the map of the Middle East shows a peaceful, secure Israel beside a peaceful and democratic Palestine," Bush says, according to prepared remarks.

"The day will come when people from Cairo and Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut to Damascus and Tehran live in free and independent societies, bound together by ties of diplomacy, tourism, and trade. And the day will come when Al Qaida, Hezbollah, and Hamas are marginalised and then wither away, as Muslims across the region realise the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause."

The speech was delivered on Friday at the Saban Forum at the Newseum.

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