debkafile Reports: Washington sources say President Bush is displeased with Olmert’s trip to Moscow for talks with Putin on Iran’s nuclear threat

The president joined Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak for an unplanned meeting in the office of US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley Thursday, Oct. 18. The three-way meeting was expanded to an hour and pointedly centered on the Iranian nuclear issue as a rejoinder to the Olmert trip to Moscow and to indicate the President’s disapproval if not anger.
The Olmert-Putin Kremlin conversation lasting three hours turned on the Israeli prime minister’s request for Moscow to support a third, tough round of sanctions against Tehran. An official traveling with Olmert said he was pleased with the results of the meeting and found great understanding of the Israeli position, especially on the Iranian issue, from the Russian president.
A senior US source disclosed that the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, still in Jerusalem at the tail end of her Middle East shuttle, voiced disapproval of Olmert’s planned trip to Moscow when they met Wednesday, Oct. 17. She advised him not to interfere in US-Russian interchanges on Iran.
US officials say if Olmert wants to go his own way on Iran and work with Putin, he need not come to us for help. And Israeli intelligence source added: If Putin is so understanding of the Israeli position, how come he promised Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to complete the Bushehr atomic reactor and provide it with fuel?
Putin’s actions in Tehran provoked the Bush reference to the danger of a third world war if Iran was helped to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Olmert’s trip to Moscow, said a US source, countermanded the president’s position.