Cheney's Middle East Trip To Focus On Terrorism
(Vice President leaves March 10 for region) (720) By Stephen Kaufman Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Vice President Dick Cheney embarks March 10 on a ten-day trip to the Middle East and Europe to discuss the war on terror and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. The United States does not want to allow a sanctuary for terrorists to develop someplace else now that the al Qaeda is under U.S. military pressure in Afghanistan, Cheney said in a televised statement in Washington on March 8. "That means that it's important for us to continue to work with our friends in those other nations out there that have been affected by the al Qaeda operation. Just as we know there was an al Qaeda cell here in the United States that conducted the attacks on September 11th, there are cells in other countries in the region out there," Cheney said on the C-SPAN channel. A senior administration official, speaking March 8 at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, said the trip would take the Vice President to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait as well as to Britain and Turkey. "All of the countries we will be visiting have made significant contributions to the war on terrorism," said the official. Cheney's talks with Middle East leaders would include financial measures to be taken against terrorist assets, sharing intelligence information on terrorist organizations, law enforcement efforts to detain terrorist suspects, and military training and equipment supplies for use in the international campaign against terrorism. "We will continue to need the support and cooperation of our allies and the opportunity to gain from their insights," said the official. Cheney's trip overlaps with General Anthony Zinni's visit to the region to try to broker a ceasefire to the deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The Vice President will discuss ideas for resolving the conflict, as well as the recent peace plan put forward by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. "We see it as a very helpful and hopeful sign that [Crown Prince Abdullah] would come forward at this time to make such a proposal. And we look forward to extensive discussions about it and its ramifications," said the official. The official also confirmed that Cheney would have discussions with Arab leaders about Iraq. "[The topic of] Iraq came up any time he has traveled to the region in the last decade and it is sure to come up in the discussions during this trip," said the official. The United States has made no secret that it would like to see the end of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime. The senior official said that Cheney wished to discuss "how the best interests of the people of Iraq might be reached, and how the best interests of the neighboring countries might be protected from the threat that Iraq poses." The official added that Cheney was prepared to hear the views of Middle Eastern and European leaders, including those in opposition to U.S. policies. "It is very important for there to be a frank exchange of views between the administration and the various other countries in which he will be traveling as well as the European countries in which he will travel ... We certainly look forward to those discussions. We look forward to learning more about the views of the countries we will be visiting and why they hold them," said the official. The senior official highlighted Cheney's long personal and public background in the region, saying the Vice President first traveled there as part of the U.S. delegation to the late Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser's funeral in 1970. Energy issues will also figure on the Vice President's agenda in the region. "[The energy sector] will be a significant part of discussions in an area that has close to two-thirds of the world's proven oil supplies, and roughly a third of the world's natural gas supplies," said the official. Cheney's tenure as Secretary of Defense during the 1991 Operation Desert Storm also familiarized him with the region, and the official said the Vice President, who had been invited to the 2001 ten-year anniversary celebration in Kuwait "looked forward to a chance to go back and renew old friendships." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
