Bush to court Saudi allies
2008-01-14 14:57
Riyadh - US President George W Bush was headed for regional powerhouse and close ally Saudi Arabia on Monday to rally support for his Middle East peace drive and his campaign to isolate arch foe Iran.
Bush warned on Sunday of what he called the threat to the world posed by the Islamic republic, saying it should be confronted "before it's too late".
"The United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf - and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late," he said on Sunday in the keynote speech of his Middle East tour.
Tehran "seeks to intimidate its neighbours with missiles and bellicose rhetoric", Bush said in his address in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere."
He described Iran as "today the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and, with al-Qaeda, the main threat to the region's stability, and called on the regime in Tehran to "heed the will" of the people.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki retorted that Bush's efforts to damage Tehran's ties with its Arab neighbours were futile, and dismissed his tour which started last Wednesday in Israel as a "failure".
'Difficult talks'
Iran and the international community have been at loggerheads for several years over its nuclear drive, which Washington suspects is a cover for ambitions to build atomic weapons - a charge Tehran denies.
But tensions escalated shortly before Bush headed to the region over a confrontation in the strategic Strait of Hormuz between Iranian speedboats and US warships.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will host Bush at his ranch outside Riyadh but despite the intimacy of the setting, the two allies face "difficult talks" both on Iran and the Middle East conflict, analysts and diplomats say.
While Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has voiced concern over the rise of Shi'ite Iran, it is opposed to another war in the region after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that has strengthened the Islamic regime in Tehran.
Bush and Abdullah are also expected to discuss arms sales and efforts to combat terrorism, with the US administration believing its ally - the homeland of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden - still has "more to do".
'Peace should prevail'
The United States announced last July military pacts worth $20bn for Saudi Arabia in a bid to counter Iran, and a US official said the Bush administration is expected to notify Congress on Monday of its intention to sell the weaponry.
On the Iran crisis, Saudi Arabia has already called for Washington and Tehran to exercise restraint.
"Saudi Arabia is a neighbour of Iran in the Gulf, which is a small lake. We are keen that harmony and peace should prevail among states of the region," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.