New Middle East violence rankles Bush

[Soldier4Christ]

New Middle East violence rankles Bush

President Bush blamed Syria and Iran for new Middle East violence Wednesday, faced further defiance from Iran and North Korea and got an acerbic retort from Russian President Vladimir Putin to U.S. criticism.

The stack of problems grew as Bush flew here for a 36-hour visit en route to St. Petersburg for difficult talks with Putin about Russia's retreat from democracy, and then a summit of world powers. Arriving after dark, the president and his wife, Laura, walked down a red carpet lined by a military honor guard and headed straight to their hotel.

Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S.-German relations are better than they have been for years after deep strains from the Iraq war. With British Prime Minister Tony Blair struggling to stay in power and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi driven from office, Merkel has emerged as the strongest U.S. ally in Europe.

On Thursday, Bush and Merkel will hold a press conference in the port city of Stralsund and dine with some of Merkel's constituents at a barbecue in Trinwillershagen, a rural town that was once a collective farm known as the "Red Banner."

Thousands of police were deployed for Bush's protection. Stralsund's residents were forced to move their cars out of the Stralsund's historic center, and everything from bicycles to flower pots was ordered brought inside. Anti-Bush demonstrations were planned well away from the areas that he will tour.

As Bush left Washington, tensions with Iran and North Korea grew higher and there was a sharp escalation of problems in the Middle East. Israel launched a military offensive in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Lebanon became the second front in Israel's fight against Islamic militants; Israel already is waging an operation to free a soldier captured by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"This is a terrorist attack and it is clearly timed to exacerbate already high tensions in the region and sow further violence," National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow, in a statement issued as Air Force One flew here, said: "We also hold Syria and Iran, which have provided long-standing support for Hezbollah, responsible for today's violence. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of the Israeli soldiers."

Syria blamed Israel for the violence both in Lebanon and Gaza and denied that it had a role in the soldiers' abduction.

The Middle East was another headache for Bush, along with rising violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and continuing tensions with Iran and North Korea.

Iran defied appeals from the United States and other nations to provide an answer by Wednesday on whether it would accept an international deal to end suspicious nuclear activities. The United States and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany and the European Union, agreed to raise Iran's behavior at the Security Council for possible punishment.

The United States also accused North Korea of rebuffing world appeals to halt its missile tests and return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

North Korea and Iran are expected to be major topics at the G-8 meeting, which brings together the leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and Japan. Along with China, Russia has been reluctant to impose penalties on either North Korea or Iran, urging more diplomacy, instead.

In an icy blast, Putin said that Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of Russia was "an unsuccessful hunting shot" — a reference to Cheney's Feb. 11 hunting accident in Texas in which he accidentally peppered lawyer Harry Whittington in the torso, neck and face with up to 200 shotgun pellets.

Cheney angered Putin with a May speech in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania in which he accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."