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3/10/2002 (17:26) |
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Cheney leaves US for Mideast mission of war, peace
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney left on Sunday on a 10-day, 12-nation mission of war and peace to the Middle East, the Gulf and Britain in search of support for extending the fight against terrorism and a resolution to escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence.
On his first overseas trip as vice president, Cheney was due to arrive in London later on Sunday and join British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street on Monday. There, he will commemorate the passage of six months since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that triggered the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Cheney departed Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on one of the two jets usually used by President George W. Bush for a trip shrouded in security-driven secrecy.
But even as he departed, his mission was complicated by revelation of a classified Pentagon report reviewing U.S. nuclear options that outlined contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries - China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria.
The secret report provided to Congress also reportedly called for developing new nuclear weapons that would be better suited for striking targets in nations developing weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, acknowledging the report will give Cheney 'other things to talk about that he might not have planned to,' told CBS television the effort was simply 'sound, military conceptual, planning' and not a precursor to any imminent U.S. action.
'(Cheney) will put it in context and in perspective,' Powell said.
The violence in the Middle East, Powell added, would be discussed by the vice president 'at every stop.'
Cheney visits 11 countries besides Britain -- Kuwait, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, Oman, Jordan, Israel and Yemen. He will also visit U.S. troops in the region.
His meetings with Arab and Israeli officials will study ways to end the alarming Israeli-Palestinian violence, including a Saudi proposal for normalizing relations with Israel. Powell said he was hopeful the U.S. envoy, headed to the region this week as well, will have achieved some success before Cheney arrives.
The vice president was expected to talk to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah about his proposal for normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a withdrawal from Palestinian territory captured in 1967.
IRAQ GROUNDWORK
Cheney also wants to discuss what the administration sees as a threat of mass destruction posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He also will encourage more action to crush the al Qaeda network of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden -- blamed for the September attacks -- including eliminating any refuge outside Afghanistan.
'The main reason the president wanted me to go was to talk about the continuing war on terror and our ongoing operations not only in Afghanistan, but in other respects as well,' Cheney told reporters on Friday.
Cheney declined to say what action the United States was contemplating against Iraq, a nation condemned by Bush as part of an 'axis of evil.' Powell said Washington was unlikely to resort to nuclear weapons in any confrontation with Iraq, which has been widely speculated as a possible next target in the U.S. war on terror.
'We are not looking for a war and it seems most unlikely that among all the options we have, this is an option we would have to exercise in any foreseeable way,' Powell said.
The United States is committed to ending Saddam's regime, and has demanded Iraq readmit U.N. weapons inspectors without conditions.
Cheney, the U.S. secretary of defense during the 1991 Gulf war to oust invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait, is likely to lay down a tough line.
'It's important not to fall into the trap of assuming here that the objective is inspectors. The issue is ... we know they have not eliminated their weapons of mass destruction,' a senior official said.
But the administration remains divided over whether and how to attack Iraq militarily. This gives Cheney the hard task of showing the determination needed to win support for any action, while explaining that Washington has not reached a decision, said Jim Steinberg, deputy national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton.
'If they don't come across as fairly determined, then all the countries are going to say that (military action against Iraq) is a terrible idea,' Steinberg said.
13:56 03-10-02
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited.
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