After a nail-biting run of zig-zags, short-cuts and back-seat squabbling, George Bush has finally had the sense to stop and ask directions in his policy towards the Middle East. It is true that the man he asked, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, upbraided him for dangerous driving and gave Mr Bush a map that he may not want to follow. But at least the occupants of the vehicle have a chance to think about where they are going. The main achievement of last week's Crawford summit with Prince Abdullah was to involve Mr Bush himself more directly in Middle Eastern policy. In the past, he has intervened largely to support (or sometimes undermine) his emissaries. This time, he was the principal in the talks and in the diplomacy that followed. Abandoning recent megaphone tactics, he twisted Ariel Sharon's arm privately to accept a compromise ending Israel's armed siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah (see page 41). Some remembered that his father and Bill Clinton had both been reluctant at first to step into the Middle Eastern snake-pit, and wondered if he was about to get more involved.
展开▼
