Saudis Leave Rice Stranded

[ozymandius]

Source: Time/CNN

The Arab League summit that concluded in Riyadh Thursday re-affirmed the body's peace offer to Israel, but it hardly suggested the sort of "bold outreach" to the Jewish State for which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been lobbying. Indeed, the summit appeared to reveal a yawning gap between the outlooks of the U.S. and its key Arab ally, summit-host Saudi Arabia.

Although on her latest Middle East shuttle she managed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to agree on holding regular meetings, Rice's efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace are looking more like crisis management than visionary deal-making. She had hesitated to spell out exactly what she meant by "bold outreach," but had urged the Arab leaders heading for Riyadh to not merely to endorse a formula for peace — the Arab League's Beirut initiative, first adopted in 2002, calls for full peace and normalization of relations if Israel withdraws from Arab lands occupied in 1967 — but also to provide a mechanism through which Arabs and Israelis could begin discussing the formula. "Regional states," she said, "should participate actively in diplomacy to advance the achievement of peace."

-cut-

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 to hold back from substantive negotiations with the Palestinians, much less the Arab League. Instead, Riyadh believes that if it wants to revive the peace process, the U.S. needs to do more to pressure Israel into meaningful negotiations and realistic compromises.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1605010,00.html

[Roland99]

1. How much longer until the Royals buddy up to China and dump the US like a pyscho ex?

[frogcycle]

2. about five minutes imo n/t

[aquart]

5. I'm not sure they'll find the Chinese as much fun as we were.

But the corruption will be at least equal.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Get her rock ready for her to slither back under.

[rodeodance]

21. well, Waxman wants her at a hearing Mid April

[Javaman]

4. I think our national anthem should be replaced with a song..

that has the words, "we are so fucked" as the chorus.

[The Stranger]

6. That is the verse.

The chorus would be: ". . . so, so, so, so fucked."

Maybe to the tune of an old Burt Bacharach(sp?) song?

[Donnachaidh]

11. can we use the Camelot tune from Monty Python?

Someone else will have to come up with the verses. :evilgrin:

[Javaman]

15. "let's not go there, it's a silly place" nt

[EFerrari]

14. Maybe the I95 Song

"Were you born an @sshole / or did ya work on it your whole life?"

[salin]

7. steamed Rice anyone?

sure seems as if her long-shot at trying to create the impression that she has accomplished anything as Secretary of State (other than carrying jr.s water) is falling very flat.

[soothsayer]

8. they should leave her on the streets of 'safe' baghdad and let her

make her way home.

[bemildred]

9. Yep, not walking in the Bushite parade anymore.

The King is going to start his own parade.

[pokercat999]

18. If he's smart he will. Look what has happened to other

Bush family friends, Noreiga and Saddam.

[Donnachaidh]

10. If Condi was paid per *accomplishment* she'd be NEKKID

I really think she needs to have her pay-scale totally revamped.

[underpants]

13. She is as relevant as a typewriter repairman

Since when do the Saudis get "in lock step" with us? Hell the Saudis have a direct line to tell BUSH AND CHENEY what to do

[Norquist Nemesis]

12. The Bushetals have been playing a dangerous game of Deal or No Deal

and their choices have come down to Oil or AIPAC.

[Supersedeas]

16. Condi Incompetence - annoyed Bush took 5 years to pay notice

[onager]

17. Damn! I thought they meant literally stranded.

I had visions of the Saudis dumping Rice from a limousine in the desert, so that she could be kidnapped by Bedouins and never heard from again.

I spent 2 years working/living in Saudi Arabia, and have spent almost that long in Egypt, where I am now.

Today's Egyptian Gazette ran a vicious and therefore highly enjoyable cartoon featuring Rice and Bush. Bush was asking: "Condi, can I run for President of Iran in 2009?"

:rofl:

[symbolman]

19. So the Saudi Royals

NOW want the Bush Family lips to Migrate from their faces, to their ASSES, eh?

I'm sure that Poppy Bush is getting a big kick out of this one...

Someone might want to think about BOMBING THEM back into the stone age and stealing THEIR OIL, esp since MOST of the highjackers, allegedly, were from that Damned Terrorist Nation..

Takes one to know one I guess.

[rodeodance]

20. she was way over her head (ideology oriented) when she started.