CAIRO — Despite the red carpets, big receptions, dancing, impressive gifts, US President George Bush's week-long Middle East tour proved a failure even before he wrapped it up.

"Seldom has an American President's visit left the region so underwhelmed, confirming Bush's huge unpopularity on the street and his sagging credibility among Arab leaders he counts as allies," Time commented on Thursday, January 17.

Bush wrapped up his tour after failing to win backing for the main goals of the trip, An Arab agreement to "reach out" to Israel and join anti-Iran alliance.

Although Saudi Arabia rolled the red carpet for Bush and King Abdullah honored him with an invitation to his horse farm, the Saudis publicly disagreed with Bush's views.

"I don't know what more outreach we can give to the Israelis," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during Bush's visit to the Arab powerhouse.

The Saudis also seemed to rebuff Bush's call to increase oil production to bring down prices.

"We will raise production when the market justifies it," was the answer of the Saudi oil minister.

Even on the bigger issue of building a coalition against Iran, Bush's visit was no less a failure.

"Iran is a neighboring country, an important country in the region," prince Faisal said.

"Naturally we have nothing bad against Iran."

The reaction form Kuwait, another Gulf ally and home to two US military bases, was even blunter.

Only days after Bush visited Kuwait, which his father helped liberate in 1991, its Foreign Minister Mohammed Sabah al-Salem was in Tehran.

"My country knows who is our friend and who is our enemy, and Iran is our friend," he said shaking hands with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

Lost Faith

It was not only the leaders who abandoned Bush.

He got a chilly reception from "the people whose liberty he says he sincerely seeks," the Time noted.

In Egypt, the last stop in Bush's multi-leg tour, protesters set fire to American flags in the capital Cairo.

The opposition press has been vocal in its criticism. Al-Ahaly newspaper told the US president simply to "Get out."

Experts believe people have lost interest in Bush's rhetoric and policies.

In Dubai he talked about democratic freedom in the Middle East but in Egypt, where complaints of police torture and crackdown on dissents remain widespread, human rights was not mentioned.

Instead, Bush showered President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in office since 1981, as an experienced, valued strategic partner for regional peace and security.

"You have taken steps toward economic openness…and political reforms," he added.

In 2005, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played the democracy tune, vowing support for "the democratic aspirations of all people."

Little has changed since then and for many Bush's tour was the straw on the camel's back.

"Bush, as far as American foreign policy vis-a-vis democracy, civil rights, is right back to square one," Hisham Kassem, an Egyptian political activist who last year received a US National Endowment for Democracy award, told the Washington Post Thursday.

"This trip marks it."

Activists believe Washington is back to the old policy of valuing the stability of autocratic Arab governments over the uncertainty of elected ones.

"He is saying he supports the presidents and the governments in the Arab countries," Ghada Jamsheer, a women's rights activist in Bahrain, told the Time.

"This is why people are angry. Why is he not putting pressure on these governments to push for human rights?"

Source: Empty-handed Bush Jan 18, 2008