Word: saudi
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...sincerity of Bush's efforts to establish a Palestinian state and criticized his campaign to pressure Iran over its nuclear program. On occasion, senior Arab officials contradicted or disputed Bush's pronouncements even before he left their countries. Perhaps the unkindest cut of all was an editorial in the Saudi Gazette, comparing back-to-back visits by Western leaders to Riyadh this week. "It would be difficult to argue that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the Kingdom was not in almost every way a success," the paper said, adding, with an unmistakable swipe at Bush: "It's refreshing...
...number of increasingly large solid gold stars encrusted with scores of diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Though Bush talked up his "Freedom Agenda" there, his aides dodged questions about the fact that 50% of the country's parliament is appointed by Sheikh Khalifa, who is also the lifetime "President." Saudi Arabia, the most repressive of all the countries Bush visited on his trip, tried to outdo the "President Sheikh" Monday evening with a jewel-laden gold medallion dangling from a chain encrusted with rubies and emeralds...
...theory is holding up in the Gulf - almost. On the one hand, Saudi Arabia and Iran are not liberalizing, while Bahrain is. The outlier is Dubai. It is diversifying economically as its oil runs out, but has taken almost no steps to democratize. When Bush brought up the "Freedom Agenda" in private talks with Sheikh Mohammad, says National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley...
Thanks to all these precautions, Bush's foray into the West Bank passed without a hitch. But the real challenge for the presidential phalanx of bodyguards will come when his tour moves on to possibly more dangerous territory - Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - where Bush is even less popular. With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Bethlehem and Aaron J. Klein/Jerusalem
...Iraq war was about Bush's freedom agenda, Arabs wonder, why has the White House stood by so quietly as pro-American authoritarian Arab regimes have jailed democracy activists, as happened to former presidential candidate Ayman Nour in Egypt? The White House stresses Bush's admiration for Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and the country's baby-step municipal elections in 2005, yet Washington is silent about the systematic repression of women and minorities permitted in the name of religion in the Kingdom. If any Arab leader today deserves to be called a democrat, it's Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad...