Word: abdullah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rice seemed to be expressing the hope that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, whom she praised as the author of the 2002 Arab initiative, would authorize direct Saudi-Israeli talks. When asked by a reporter whether it was time for the Saudis to meet the Israelis face-to-face, Rice replied, "I would hope that every state will search very deep to see what it can do at this crucial time to finally end this conflict...
...Plainly, however, the U.S. and the Saudis are not exactly in lockstep, and the distance between them is widening by the day as American credibility in the Middle East nosedives as a result of the U.S. failure in Iraq. The Saudis believe that Abdullah's 2002 initiative in itself remains a bold and historic outreach to the Israelis, and they remain annoyed that it took the Bush Administration and the Israeli government five years to pay it much notice. They certainly see no reason why they should be expected to make further gestures toward Israel when the Israelis continue...
...Olmert was right: it sounded like spin. The implication, of course, was that Abdullah would be pleasantly surprised. But it was an implication impeded by an impossible precondition: that somehow the Saudis would first be able to get the Hamas-led Palestinian government to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel. "It's not going to happen," a member of Olmert's Cabinet told me. "Hamas is getting money and training from Iran. Its militant wing, where the real power lies, is based in Damascus. The Saudis have no influence over them." And the Israelis will have no truck with Hamas. Indeed...
...have something in mind that might be headlined as dramatic, it will be labeled as spin," he said. But later, when I asked him about the Saudi initiative, he made a creaky effort to gin up a headline: "If I had an opportunity to sit down with King Abdullah, which I have not, he would be very surprised by what...
...home front, they couldn't ignore the few allies they had left overseas. Britain's Tony Blair announced a partial pullout from Iraq last month, and then moderate Arab neighbors in the region began to clamor for Bush to pull up before he crashed. On Wednesday, King Abdullah II of Jordan made an impassioned public appeal in a joint meeting of Congress for Washington to take the lead on Middle East peace talks...