As I write, two senior administration officials are briefing reporters on the president’s upcoming trip to the United Nations. “The whole visit is structured to show that the freedom agenda remains central to us,” said one of the officials. “The Middle East is the central battleground.”

The officials were asked whether, even though at his news conference this morning, Bush ruled out meeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York next week, there might be some low-level contacts between the U.S. and Iran. “Our long answer is no,” the official said. “There won’t be any contact…We are not going to have it unless and until they suspend their enrichment activities.”

In his speech to the General Assembly, the official said Bush “will lay out his positive vision for the Middle East and the bright democratic future that we see for the Middle East, in contradistinction to some who have an almost backward-looking vision for that region.” (By that, the official said he meant terrorists and those who support them.) The official said Iran “will certainly be one of the factors” addressed in the speech — “the positive future we see for the region and how Iran can be part of it…and calling attention to the negative features of the current situation in Iran.”

Finally, the official said that early in the week, Bush will meet with the president of El Salvador, a country that 20 years ago was torn by violence and insurgency. “Flash forward to the last ten or fifteen years,” the official said, “and you’ve had a very successful democratic country where people who were former combatants have managed to re-integrate into a very successful society.” Any comparisons to any countries currently torn by violence and insurgency are completely intentional.