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CNN Live At Daybreak

Cheney To Visit Israel, Will Help Zinni In Any Way Necessary

Aired March 18, 2002 - 05:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And as I told you just a short time ago, Dick Cheney is on his way to Israel.

Our own John King is about to board a plane in Kuwait City to follow him there. We have John King on the phone right now -- good morning, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

My apologies for the windy audio earlier. We were making our way aboard the plane. The vice president now just a few hours from hitting the ground in Israel. The first thing will be a briefing by General Zinni, the president's special envoy. And at a news conference here in Kuwait City, the vice president saying he will do anything General Zinni thinks is necessary to try to help these very difficult negotiations, even, and White House aides say this is a remote possibility, a very remote possibility, but the vice president says even meeting with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat if that is necessary.

So far, Secretary of State Powell, the highest ranking Bush administration official to meet with Mr. Arafat because of the administration's displeasure with him, the administration not thinking Mr. Arafat has done enough to stop the violence.

Saddam Hussein obviously came up in the conversations in Kuwait. It was 12 years ago when Mr. Cheney was defense secretary the United States drove the invading Iraqi Army out of Kuwait. He was thanked for that today as he arrived in the region. Still, the deputy prime minister of Kuwait telling Dick Cheney that right now they would prefer a diplomatic solution to this stand-off and the deputy prime minister of Kuwait saying Saddam Hussein should immediately let the weapons inspectors back in so that there is not pain inflicted on his people.

He is on to Israel now and the vice president realizing throughout this trip as he tries to talk about a tougher posture toward Iraq, leaders in the region very much, especially here in the Arab world, very much want the United States first to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian violence and get a cease-fire -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, John King, I know you've got to get on board that plane and take off so we'll let you go. And thanks for joining us live this morning. For more insight into the Middle East situation, tonight CNN's Larry King will have an exclusive interview with Jordan's King Abdullah. And it's at a special time, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.

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