Cheney: Concern Over Iraq

Vice President Cheney says Arab leaders are "uniformly concerned" about Iraq.

Cheney spoke to reporters at the White House Thursday with President Bush, after briefing his boss on his latest swing through the Mideast.

The vice president tried to rally Arab nations to support strong action against Iraq, but he was met by a steady stream of objections to any immediate U.S. military action.

Cheney says Arab nations are concerned about Saddam Hussein's failure to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Bush said Cheney made it clear to Arab leaders that "when we say we're going to do something we mean it."

President Bush has said that Iraq will face tough consequences if it doesn't let U.N. weapons inspectors return.

The vice president left the Middle East Wednesday without a mandate for action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, after a 12-country, 10-day trip that also included Britain.

The trip sought support for further steps in the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" and Washington's campaign to deprive Iraq of weapons of mass destruction it believes Baghdad is developing.

But at stop after stop Cheney met Arab leaders who he acknowledged were preoccupied with the surging Middle East conflict and who said Iraq was a far less pressing priority.

The message he received was that there would be no support for tough action against Iraq while Middle East violence raged.

An early warning came last week from Jordan's King Abdullah, the first Arab leader he met on the trip and a key U.S. ally. Jordan's location, sandwiched between Iraq and Israel, makes it particularly sensitive to both issues.

"I have told him (Cheney) that the Middle East cannot support two wars at the same time — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an American intervention against Iraq," Abdullah told Le Figaro newspaper in Paris.

"To attack Baghdad now would be a disaster. The security and stability of our region would not be able to cope with it."

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit became the latest leader on Cheney's tour to criticize U.S. proposals to widen the war on terrorism to Baghdad. He suggested such strikes could hurt Turkey's tottering economy.

Still, Ecevit told reporters after the meeting that Cheney had "very clearly stated that there will be no military action against Iraq in the foreseeable future."

Cheney disputed that characterization of his remarks. "I said military action is not imminent. And that's what I've been saying at every stop." But he has said the issue of Iraq's weapons goals must be addressed.

Several Arab leaders urged the United States to become more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and to call on Israel to let Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attend an Arab summit in Beirut next week at which a new Saudi peace proposal will be discussed.

Cheney responded in Israel on Tuesday with an offer to meet Arafat as early as next week if he reins in the violence and implements a plan brokered by CIA Director George Tenet to enforce a truce.

The vice president could hold the meeting as early as Monday, most probably in Egypt. A senior U.S. official said Cheney would most likely use the meeting — an important public relations coup for Arafat — to stress the U.S. position that Arafat must implement agreements to enforce a ceasefire.

Such a meeting could help pave the way for President Bush to end his boycott on meeting Arafat. It could also help ease a perception of what Arabs leaders complain is favoritism in U.S. Middle East policy.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a news conference with Cheney that Israel would let Arafat travel to the summit — on the same conditions as for a meeting with Cheney — adding that he must deliver a peaceful message.

Cheney's task of rallying Arab support against Iraq proved harder now than in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War.

"What Washington wants the Arab world to endorse is an attempt to overthrow a sovereign nation's legitimate government in the name of terrorism," the Qatar English-language newspaper The Peninsula said in an editorial on Monday, the day after Cheney met the country's leaders.

But one major accomplishment of Cheney's trip was that he simply paid attention to Arab leaders, who had been disappointed with what some viewed as lack of interest on Mr. Bush's part.

Cheney, a former defense secretary in the Gulf War and oil industry executive, renewed personal relationships with Arab leaders in royal palaces and in presidential homes.

"The schmooze factor is very important," said analyst Judith Kipper of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"He's obviously coming away with a clear picture of what's necessary," she said. "They need high level visits, they need to be informed, they need to be consulted. They've been complaining about this for 30 years."