US President George W Bush's visit to the Middle East next week will focus too much on Iran to the detriment of providing a much needed shot in the arm for regional peace, Arab commentators say.
From Amman to Cairo, Arabs have expressed a strong belief that Bush will fail to achieve any progress during the eight-day visit, despite a high-profile US conference in November to revive Middle East peace talks.
Many Arabs are concerned that efforts to solve the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict will be overshadowed by Washington's attempts to forge a regional front against Iran that could pave the way for a possible US strike on the Islamic republic.
"Expectations that Bush's visit might succeed in achieving a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process are not high at all," Jordanian political analyst Fahd Kheitan told AFP.
Mohammed al-Masri of the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies believes Bush will do "nothing more than push for improving the conditions of the Palestinians."
Bush is certainly not seeking "a final agreement or peace treaty" between Israel and the Palestinians, despite November's high-profile conference in Annapolis to revive Middle East peace talks, he said. The US president said in his weekly radio address on Saturday that he "will discuss the importance of countering the aggressive ambitions of Iran" and assure allies that "America will stay engaged in the region."
Bush will spend three days in Israel and the Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah from next Wednesday in the first visit by a US president in nine years, following his predecessor Bill Clinton's trip in December 1998.
The US president will also travel to the oil-rich countries of Bahrain and Kuwait-both of which are home to US troops-as well as regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Bush telephoned Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday to discuss the visit, a day after the Jordanian monarch warned in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that stalling peace "threatens the region's future and stability."
The Jordanian monarch pressed Olmert to halt all Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory, saying they hinder the progress of peace and urged Israel to adopt "serious and practical policies" to advance peace.
"This visit will be totally useless. It is just a pain-killing injection they are giving to the Palestinian people," said Yasser Abed, a 50-year-old taxi driver from the West Bank town of Ramallah. Amman car dealer Abu Ali accused Bush of "bias in favour of Israel"-a charge echoed across Arab capitals.
"As an ordinary Arab citizen, I can't and will not be optimistic about Bush's visit to our region. We expect nothing but more problems and troubles from his visit," said Abu Ali, who declined to give his full name. There was equal indifference in Egypt, the last stop on Bush's tour. "What difference will it make? He's going to smile to the cameras and tell us he wants to save the world. We're used to their empty words and those of our leaders," said newspaper vendor Hamed Selim.
Abdel Moneim Said, director of Egypt's Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told AFP "there is a simple hatred of the Bush administration" because of its policies in Iraq and toward the Palestinians. Saudi newspaper columnist Hussein Shobokshi also offered a tough assessment. "Bush's tour is nothing but a routine and ceremonial one," Shobokshi wrote in the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat, describing Bush as the "captain... (of) a ship stuck in the mud of Iraq."
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