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The Washington Times- -May 18, 2008 (Excerpts)

President Bush today challenged Middle East leaders to reform their governments and stand together against Iran.

Mr. Bush said that “every peaceful nation in the region has an interest in opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.”

“To allow the world’s leading sponsor of terror to gain the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations,” Mr. Bush said to applause from the crowd.

Stephen Hadley, the president”s national security advisor, went even further than the president in casting Iran as the major obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Mr. Hadley blamed Iran for fomenting violence in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Iraq, and even Afghanistan.

“Iran that stands behind what we see Hezbollah doing in Lebanon, what we see Hamas doing in the Palestinian Territories, and what we see illegal Shia militia doing in Iraq,” Mr. Hadley said to reporters in Egypt. “And increasingly we see Iran’s hand in the struggle in Afghanistan.”

Mr. Hadley said that Iran is “supporting terror and the killing of civilians as a tool to achieve political power,” and said that Mr. Bush had pressed leaders of all the leading Middle East regions to do more to stand against Iran.