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American Morning

Vice President Dick Cheney Could be Setting Stage for Strike Against Iraq?

Aired March 12, 2002 - 07:08   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now onto a mission of war and peace. Vice President Dick Cheney is traveling to Jordan this morning, the first of nine Arab countries he plans to visit. He could be setting the stage for a strike against Iraq, but are America's allies ready for it?

Well, in London yesterday, Cheney met with Prime Minister Tony Blair, who agrees Iraq is a threat and needs to be confronted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: No decisions have been taken on how we deal with this threat. But that there is a threat from Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction that he has acquired is not in doubt at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Just yesterday White House officials admitted the president's axis of evil speech, in which he targeted Iraq, had upset some U.S. allies in the war on terror and the president went out of his way to thank them for their support. But for America's Arab allies, a bigger concern is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and they will likely press the vice president for U.S. pressure to end the bloodshed and to support a Saudi peace proposal or vision, no matter what you want to call it.

Joining us now is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Good to see you again. Lots of territory to cover.

HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Oh, it's good to be here.

ZAHN: First off, what is the best that Dick Cheney can hope to accomplish as a vice president on the road on this trip?

KISSINGER: I think it's absolutely impossible to get an overall peace agreement in any measurable time and it should be confronted. And there are two visions around right now, the Israeli vision, secret dream that the Arabs would simply, the Palestinians would stop and everything goes back, becomes quiet and goes back the way that it was before the intifada.

ZAHN: That's a delusional dream, is it not?

KISSINGER: Yes. But there's also the Arab vision that they can get the United States to press Israel back into a position from which its survival would be extremely problematic and which, coming from this position, from where they are now, would be such a change that it would shake the self-confidence and the cohesion of the Israelis.

And I think the realistic negotiation has to find a position in between, some sort of interim agreement out of which emerges a Palestinian state, some progress on outlying settlements, rules of coexistence. And from that basis, then, one can look at the ultimate issues.

But right now it's a delusion to think that they can go from where they are to something that's a permanent peace and full trust between these two parties.

ZAHN: So you're essentially saying there will not be peace in this region...

KISSINGER: No.

ZAHN: ... for many years to come?

KISSINGER: No. I think, look, in 1974 an agreement was made on the Golan Heights which was not full peace, but nobody has been killed on the Golan Heights in 30 years. If an agreement can be made which come, which ends the combat that is now going on and which permits civil life to be restored on both sides of the dividing line and which makes progress, that, I think, would be a good definition of peace.

ZAHN: Does the Saudi plan or vision do that?

KISSINGER: I think the Saudi plan takes a standard, the significant thing about the Saudi plan is not the content of the plan. The significant thing is that Saudi Arabia has put itself behind any peace plan, because they have been very reluctant to accept the legitimacy of Israel altogether. So one can build from that. One doesn't have to accept all the terms of the plan. And I think negotiations should start out of which can emerge something along the lines that I've sketched.

ZAHN: On to the issue of President Bush's axis of evil speech. For the first time publicly, the administration admitting yesterday that perhaps his comments did not go over all that well with allies. And here is what a top Bush aide told our own Major Garrett. And we're going to put this up on the screen now.

It says, "The axis of evil speech made a lot of people go hey, wait a second. Where are they going? We don't have a domestic political problem with this. We do have a bit of a coalition problem."

Does the vice president have to do some damage control on this trip? KISSINGER: I think a number of people in Europe took that phrase axis of evil and blew it into a domestic political issue in their own country. As I understood what the president was saying is there is a problem when countries in which there are no domestic restraint, who have demonstrated hostility to the United States, get weapons of mass destruction, can you then wait until they do something?

So the question is valid. Whether the speechwriter chose the best three words to express it, it's a subsidiary, really, a subsidiary issue. And on the whole, I think the president was right and the Europeans should now answer the question and stop niggling about the words, how does one deal -- and this is what Prime Minister Blair has done -- how does one deal with countries that have weapons of mass destruction, have demonstrated hostility to their neighbors, have used them even against their own people, and that are now building stockpiles in violation of U.N. resolutions, particularly Iraq?

That's a valid question. I think the president might have perhaps expressed it differently, but let's get beyond that point and deal with it. And I think Prime Minister Blair has set the stage and I think by the time the vice president is through with his trip those words will no longer be the key issue.

ZAHN: Dr. Henry Kissinger, as always, good to have your perspective.

We have on standby right now Governor Tom Ridge, who is right around the corner here to help us better understand a new alert system that's coming up today.

Good to see you.

KISSINGER: Nice to see you.

ZAHN: Thank you again for your thoughts.

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