Bush, after visit to Israel, focuses on Arab side of Mideast stalemate

: U.S. President Saint George W. Shrub is pivoting to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute, and he may well acquire a less aglow response than he did over two years in State Of Israel earlier this week.

Bush stops negotiation with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah over breakfast Saturday before flying to Arab Republic Of Egypt to ran into with a twine of leadership cardinal to U.S. ends in the region: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. There are more than on Sunday: Pakistani Prime Curate Yousuf Raza Gilani, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Palestinian Prime Curate Salam Fayyad and respective Iraki leaders.

Bush was planning to also see Lebanese Prime Curate Fuad Saniora while in the Red Sea vacation spot of Sharm el-Sheik for just over a day. But that session drop off his agenda amid disturbance in Lebanon.

The belligerent grouping Hezbollah overran Capital Of Lebanon vicinities last hebdomad in protestation of measurements aimed at the grouping by Saniora's government. The show of military powerfulness by the Shiite belligerent grouping resulted in the worst internal combat since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

But on Thursday, Saniora's authorities reached a trade with Hezbollah, which the U.S. sees a terrorist organization, after Lebanon's Cabinet reversed measurements aimed at reining in the militants. Today in Africa & Center East

Bush was seeing Hosni Mubarak in a formal meeting session as well as over luncheon at a extravagance hotel overlooking the sea. But the Egyptian leader, nearly three decennaries in power, could be an improbable spouse for Bush's pushing to distribute freedom in the Center East.

Egypt was the first Arab state to do peace with State Of Israel and have long been seen as a cardinal go-between in the Mideast difference that Shrub have said he desires to work out by the clip he go forths business office next January.

But U.S. have seen its longtime confederation with Arab Republic Of Egypt rancid over the gait of political reform there.

Over the past year, respective secular newspaper editors in Arab Republic Of Egypt have got been tried, some sentenced to prison, for anti-Mubarak writings. The country's most vocal authorities critic, Egyptian-American Saad Eddin Ibrahim, have gone to the United States for fearfulness of arrest; he confronts trial on accusals of harming national interests. The Egyptian authorities also have waged a heavy crackdown on its strongest domestic opposition, the Moslem Brotherhood, arresting 100s of the Muslim fundamentalistic group's members.

Egypt, the biggest receiver of U.S. foreign assistance behind Israel, would still go on to acquire $1.3 billion (€840 million) annually in U.S. assistance for the adjacent decennary under a bundle the disposal sent to United States Congress last year.

Bush's meetings with Abbas late in the twenty-four hours — they have got dinner after a more than formal treatment session — follow his two-day visit in State Of Israel coinciding with the Judaic state's 60th day of remembrance celebrations. That milepost is seen by Palestinians as a calamity because of the 100s of one thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were driven out of their places during the 1948 warfare over Israel's creation.

Bush did not see the Palestinian districts while in Israel, nor did he advert their plight. In a much-anticipated speech Thursday to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Shrub only gently urged Mideast leadership to "make the difficult picks necessary," without reference of concrete steps, and spoke of Palestinians only in one sentence that predicted they would have got their ain state by 2068.

Bush is seen in the Arab human race as tilting much too far toward Israel. Comments Friday from Saudi Arabian Foreign Curate Saud al-Faisal about Bush's address suggested that had not changed.

"We are all aware of the particular U.S.-Israeli relation and its political dimensions," he said. "It is, however, of import also to affirm the legitimate and political rights of the Palestinian people."

He also sharply criticized State Of Israel for the "humanistic agony weighed upon the Occident Depository Financial Institution and Gaza Strip population" of Palestinians. He said Israel's "continued policy of expanding colonies on Palestinian territories" undermines the peace process.

Israelis and Palestinians have got been negotiating since December, but nil seeable have emerged from the close process.

Both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership are weak among their ain constituencies and fresh force from the Gaza Strip and colony activity by Israelis are diminishing an already cherished supply of trust. The president did no negotiating while in State Of Israel and left the Holy Place Land with no new advancement on an accord.