UNITED NATIONS – President Bush sought to blunt anti-Americanism across the Middle East on Tuesday, asserting at the United Nations that extremists are trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism.
Bush, in an address to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East against a backdrop of turmoil in Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations that have embraced the very changes he seeks for the region.
Solidly aligned with Israel, the United States is viewed with anger and suspicion by Muslims across the Middle East.
Addressing that hostility, Bush said, “My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror. We respect Islam.”
Bush said past stability in the Middle East has been achieved at the expense of freedom, and he disputed critics who claim his push for democracy has destabilized the region.
“The reality is that the stability we thought we saw in the Middle East was a mirage,” Bush told the more than 80 prime ministers and presidents assembled in the cavernous hall of the U.N. headquarters.
“For decades, millions of men and women in the region have been trapped in oppression and hopelessness. And these conditions left a generation disillusioned and made this region a breeding ground for extremism.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, Bush firmly denounced Iran for defying U.N. Security Council demands to freeze its uranium enrichment work and engage in talks to resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons ambitions.
“Should they continue to stall, we will then discuss the consequences of their stalling,” Bush said in an apparent reference to possible U.N. sanctions.
In his speech, Bush spoke directly to the people of Iran, not the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who did not attend the address. Bush said America respects Islam, the Iranian nation’s rich history and culture and that he looks to a day when the two peoples “can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace.”
That’s very different from 2002 when Bush said Iran was part of an “axis of evil.”
Taking the world stage at the U.N. General Assembly hours after Bush, the Iranian leader accused some permanent members of the Security Council – an apparent reference to the United States – of using the powerful body as a tool of “threat and coercion.”
Ahmadinejad said his country’s nuclear activities are “transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye” of U.N. inspectors.
And he reiterated his nation’s commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as it faces accusations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.
Associated Press
President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan raise their glasses for a toast Tuesday at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
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