Former U.S. President George Bush expressed support for the U.S. position in the recent standoff with Iraq during a visit to The Japan Times on Thursday.
Bush, the leader of the allied coalition that defeated Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said he stood behind President Bill Clinton. He also applauded the bravery displayed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during his recent 11th-hour trip to Baghdad.
Bush had a wide-ranging discussion of international affairs, including Japanese-U.S. relations, and U.S. domestic politics with the chairman and publisher of The Japan Times, Toshiaki Ogasawara. He later met with former Prime Ministers Kiichi Miyazawa and Toshiki Kaifu, as well as with Shoichiro Toyoda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), and other business leaders, at The Japan Times.