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Bush Tempers Democracy Talk, Castigates Iran

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By TERENCE HUNT, The Associated Press

Published: January 14, 2008

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - President Bush gently nudged authoritarian Arab allies Sunday to satisfy frustrated desires for democracy in the Mideast and saved his harshest criticism for Iran, branding it "the world's leading state-sponsor of terror."

Speaking in this Persian Gulf country, about 150 miles from the shores of Iran, Bush said Tehran threatens nations everywhere and that the United States was "rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late."

The warning about Iran was much tougher than Bush's admonition about spreading democracy in the Middle East, which had been billed as the central theme of his speech.

In a region of autocratic rulers, Bush did not single out any country for criticism. He spoke about democracy in a deeply undemocratic country, the United Arab Emirates, where an elite of royal rulers makes virtually all the decisions. Large numbers of foreign resident workers have few legal or human rights, including no right to protest working conditions.

Bush's blistering words about Iran appeared intended to reassure Arab allies about U.S. readiness to confront Tehran. There had been doubts about Washington's intentions because of a new U.S. intelligence report that said Iran had stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003.

Bush appeared to put the danger posed by Iran on par with that from al-Qaida, which the U.S. national intelligence director, Mike McConnell has said is America's greatest threat.

Bush said Iran funds militant groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad and sends arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Shiite extremists in Iraq.

His words brought a stern response from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to end what he called U.S. meddling.

"Mr. Bush has tried unsuccessfully to undermine our relations with the countries of the region. We believe his mission has totally failed. We have making strides in building ties with the region, politically, economically and even in security," Mottaki told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. "It is much better if the Americans had stopped intervening in the region's affair."

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