GULF state dismissals of a call by Iraq this week for an Arab oil embargo against the United States should lull no-one into a false sense of security. Deepening concern that the Israel-Palestinian conflict could escalate into a conflagration across the whole region has not only pushed the oil price to a six-month high, but also cast a shadow over a project as close to the heart of the White House as the war on terrorism: securing America’s economic recovery. Against this background, the world now anxiously waits to see whether President George Bush’s policy shift yesterday may pull the...