Bush puts pressure on Arab allies as Powell trip ends in humiliation

American efforts to broker a new ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ended in humiliation for the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, yesterday. He was forced to return home with neither a truce nor any evidence that Israel is ending its siege of Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
In a speech to the Virginia Military Institute, President George Bush claimed that Mr Powell had made "progress toward peace", but gave few details of what that progress entailed.

But in a sign of growing Arab anger at the US failure to rein in Israel, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt - one of Washington's closest Arab allies - abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting with Mr Powell in Cairo, in what was seen as a snub following the failure of his mission.