Region | Palestinian Territories

Bush says Middle East must reject 'spoilers'

US President George W. Bush urges Middle East governments to move towards democracy and 'reject spoilers such as Iran and Syria'.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 11:51 May 18, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • US President George W. Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani make a statement to the press in Sharm Al Shaikh in Egypt on Sunday.
  • Image Credit: AP
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Sharm Al Shaikh: US President George W. Bush has urged Middle East governments to allow more participation for women and young people and to "reject spoilers such as the regimes in Iran and Syria".

Bush is making a speech to hundreds of government and business leaders in Sunday's World Economic Forum in Egypt, where he is also expected to present a list of reforms that will help Arab governments move toward democracy.

"I will make clear that the only way to ensure true prosperity is to expand political and economic freedom," Bush said.

Bush said that he will urge the region's leaders to "embrace the changes necessary for a day when societies across the Middle East are based on justice, tolerance, and freedom."

He urged Arab leaders to "move past old grievances", in apparent reference to the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace deal and told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting on Saturday that he is committed to seeing a peace deal by the yearend.

"It breaks my heart to see the vast potential of the Palestinian people, really, wasted," Bush said.

Bush arrived in Egypt on Saturday from Saudi Arabia and went straight into talks with President Hosni Mubarak and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, before his meeting with Abbas.

In Riyadhi, he tried to press Saudi Arabia to raise oil output in the face of rocketing oil prices, but the world's biggest crude exporter said global supply was fine.

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