Bush Made Pact With This Man: Arab Sources

Secret cooperation between Iran and the Bush administration may be behind the success of the Iraq surge, which has played heavily in "John McCain’s rise from the ashes," writes Salameh Nematt in the Daily Beast. Arab intelligence sources say such a “Grand Bargain” has been reached and is the reason for the Iranian restraint in Iraq that, along with the Anbar Awakening and Gen. Petraeus’ counterinsurgency tactics, has helped stabilize Iraq.

Nematt's sources point to these factors:

• The December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate unexpectedly downplayed the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb, paving the way for extended meetings between US and Iranian ambassadors.
• Iran’s Al-Quds force stopped attacks on US troops shortly before the surge.
• Moqtada Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia—backed by Tehran—declared a truce with US forces last fall.
• Outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has accused the Bush administration of “violating its understandings with Israel on Iran.”

(More Iran stories.)