Saudis to Bush: Time for a Ceasefire
23 July 2006 3:33 pm by Taylor Marsh
Uh-oh, Mr. President, trouble in paradise?
The headline came through right before I saw Sean-Paul’s
post, as well as Patrick
Lang’s.
Every wingnut pundit was spouting off last week about how so many Arab rulers
were criticizing Hezbollah. However, what the conservatives didn’t say was that
these Sunni Arabs were actually pushing back at the Shia in their region. No
more.
Saudi Arabia asked President Bush on Sunday to intervene in Israel’s military
campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon to stop the mounting deaths.“We requested a cease-fire to allow for a cessation of hostilities,”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said after an Oval Office meeting
with Bush.Saud said he gave the president a letter from Saudi King Abdullah asking
that Bush help seek an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East conflict.Saud, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal,
and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, chief of the Saudi National Security Council,
met with Bush for more than an hour Sunday.
We mustn’t forget the Saudis have substantial money invested in Lebanon. They’ve
seen it reduced to rubble.
Today, on “Face the Nation,” we also had Israeli Ambassador Daniel
Ayalon stating that there would be no ground invasion of Israel; that at best
what would happen would be brief incursions into Lebanon to push back Hezbollah.
Clearly, the civilian casualty count has caused Israel to hear from their friends
that they’re going to lose this even if they win, which they won’t.
On top of this add that Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator,
said today that Lebanon needs $100
million in relief. The criticism
aimed at Israel today has been total. Frankly, they’ve take a righteous
action against Hezbollah, and through Olmert’s overreation, have turned it into
an international disgrace.
As for the Bush administration’s “war on terror”, Harper’s
has the humiliation.
