Prince Bandar becoming hard to reach?? Bush Admin infuriated?? Tell me more!
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently preempted U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice's new peace initiative, a peace summit meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, by broking a unity government between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas that did not require Hamas to recognize Israel or give up resistance.
Is Bandar's advice to Bush ebbing?
American officials say they also believed, again after speaking with Prince Bandar, that the Saudis might agree to direct engagement with Israel as part of a broad American plan to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Abdullah countermanded that plan. Most bitingly, during a speech before Arab heads of state in Riyadh three weeks ago, the king condemned the American invasion of Iraq as "an illegal foreign occupation." The Bush administration, caught off guard, was infuriated, and they have found Prince Bandar hard to reach since.
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