Reply #16: Bush: pace of withdrawal from Iraq may have to slow [View All]

[struggle4progress]

By Raymond Whitaker, Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem and Anne Penketh in Muscat
Published: 13 January 2008

In a development that could have an impact on the US presidential race, President George Bush said yesterday that the US could slow the pace of troop withdrawals from Iraq if commanders on the ground considered it necessary ...

Gulf states have shown equal lack of enthusiasm for another of Mr Bush's preoccupations: banging the drum against Iran, which he mentioned four times in his 15-minute statement after the Petraeus-Crocker meeting. Local reports said Kuwait's emir would tell Mr Bush of his concerns that a US strike on Iran would destabilise the Gulf, which is the key to world oil supplies.

A senior Omani official stressed that the members of the Gulf Co-Operation Council were seeking a negotiated solution to the crisis with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, and did not see why a country should be prevented from obtaining nuclear-generated electricity under UN supervision.

"We have excellent relations with Iran. We don't see a threat from Iran's nuclear programme and we are their next-door neighbour," the official told The Independent on Sunday. He also played down Iran's threat to close down the Strait of Hormuz in the case of a possible armed confrontation with the US, pointing out that the Iranians "would also suffer from the closure of Hormuz" ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article3333870.ece