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CNN Sunday Morning

Cheney to Middle East

Aired March 10, 2002 - 07:01   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this morning with a very important trip. The vice president is poised to head to head to the Middle East. A couple of things on his mind, actually, several things on his mind, in particular, quelling the violence in the Middle East, also, perhaps showing up some support for further military action in the war against terrorism. Joining us on the line, this morning from Andrews Air Force Base with more on the trip is CNN's senior White House correspondent John King who will be traveling with the vice president.

Good morning, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles. Mr. Cheney to leave Andrews Air Force Base in about 90 minutes. The first stop, perhaps the easiest stop on the trip, Mr. Cheney will travel first to London to meet with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair to compare notes, if you will, not only on the crisis in the Middle East, but also future developments and ongoing developments in the war on terrorism.

From there in London, the vice president will head Tuesday into the Middle East. We have been asking because of security concerns not to say much about his schedule in advance, but he will visit 12 countries in all on this trip over 10 days, 11 of them in the Middle East. He will visit Israel. He will visit Saudi Arabia. He will go to Jordan, to Egypt, to Kuwait, to Yemen, to Gutter (ph), to the United Arab Emirates' Oman and so on and so forth throughout the region.

Obviously, this was a trip planned weeks ago when Mr. Cheney thought the overwhelming focus would be on the future front in the war on terrorism, the continuing intelligence sharing, especially with said countries like Yemen, where the United States is concerned about continuing al Qaeda operation.

But because of the deadly violence in the Middle East, because of this renewed diplomatic push by the Bush White House to get involved in Middle East diplomacy, Mr. Cheney knows that at every stop he will questioned as well about just what the United States is willing to do. And the overwhelming majority of countries are Arab nations and they believe this administration has been lopsided in favor of the Israelis. They're looking for pressure on Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, to quell the violence. Vice President Cheney knows that criticism is coming. A very high stakes trip for him. Unusual for the vice president to be in this role, but remember, back during the Gulf War when he was the defense secretary for the former President Bush, he traveled to this region extensively. He is very well known.

O'BRIEN: Well, John, to say it's a full plate, I guess, is a big understatement. Top of the agenda, I suppose, would have to be the Middle East given the ongoing violence there. I'm curious, is he going to be actively engaging, trying to get the Saudi peace proposal -- to get more support for it as he goes along? In other words, will he be an active advocate for that particular proposal?

KING: Yes, he will be and what he will do, we are told, is urge all the other Arab nations he visits to support Crown Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and urge the Crown Prince himself to put more details, more meat on the bones, if you will. The Crown Prince has outlined what is essentially a classic plan for a peace deal. Israel withdraws from all the territories it has occupied since 1967 and the Arab world not only recognize Israel, but normalize diplomatic relations. But there has not been specifics about the borders, specifics about what kind of a timeframe the Saudis are talking about, specifics as to whether every single Arab nation that has not recognized Israel and that is the overwhelming majority, will sign onto this proposal.

So the vice president will push for more details. And he also knows that as urges the Arabs to engage in this, especially the Saudis, he will be pushed as well, one, to pressure Ariel Sharon to stop the Israeli retaliations and what the Palestinians and the Arabs view as Israeli led violence and also, to push Ariel Sharon to let Yasser Arafat go to that Arabic Summit later this month in Beirut. He has been held, of course, hostage in the view of the Palestinians in his offices in Ramallah and they want him to be able to travel. And it's an open question as to whether the Israelis will let him.

O'BRIEN: Now, on the other subject, the war on terror. The administration is sort of steering reporters away from the assumption that this trip was an effort to perhaps lay the groundwork for further, specific military action. What's your sense of it? Is there a specific plan in mind that he might be floating as he goes to these various capitals?

KING: This trip is more designed to steal the Arab world that the United States means it in the world of -- in the words of one senior administration official the other day that "this will be a continuing effort, that the president will not back down." The vice president says he's not going to say any military action against the Iraq is imminent, but he is going to say that the United States will deal with this issue aggressively, that it does not view simply any Iraq permission for weapons inspectors to come back in, something Iraq is refusing right now, but some suggest that perhaps Iraq will try to lower the temperature by letting in some form of weapons inspectors. Again, they have not been in Baghdad for more than three years now. The administration making clear that will not be enough.

The vice president knows in the region, he will face, especially publicly, pressure, not that that the United States should not go into Iraq, that Iraq is not directly connected to the war on terrorism, but the vice president will make the case that yes, in the weeks and months ahead, the United States expects to see dramatic actions from the government of Saddam Hussein or it will be prepared to take military action. It's not an imminent question.

I traveled with the vice president more than a decade ago, around Christmas time. He went to many of these countries and it was in January when the air war began in Kuwait. Nothing like that connected to the timetable to this trip, but certainly, the vice president does want to say he understands there would objections in the region if the United States confronts Saddam Hussein, but this administration is determined to do so.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I'll be interested to talk to you sometime about the parallels between those two trips and how the atmosphere might different and the reception for that matter.

CNN's John King, senior White House correspondent, who will be on that really an odyssey, 12 nation trip that the vice president is beginning this morning. Thanks for being with us and he'll be checking in with us all throughout that trip of course.

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