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CNN Sunday Morning

Cheney in Qatar

Aired March 17, 2002 - 09:05   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: As we speak, Vice President Dick Cheney is in the gulf state of Qatar after his brief visit to Bahrain today. Our John King is traveling with the Vice President on this 12- nation diplomatic trip and an important one it is. He joins us on the line now. John Where are you?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Miles. I am on a bus. We just left Qatar Air Base that is used extensively by U.S. Air Force personnel, who are actively involved in the ongoing campaign in Afghanistan.

Vice President Cheney just delivering a pep talk to Air Force members and some support forces there, promising them the President would give them all the support they need, also promising that the United States was in this war for as long as it takes, and he mentioned not only the campaign in Afghanistan.

But then he said the next phase of the operation, which is confronting regimes with weapons of mass destruction that might marry up with terrorist groups, that an obvious reference to his effort on this trip to build support for a tougher U.S. posture toward Iraq. That has frustrating, at least from a public perspective.

Many Arab leaders the Vice President has met with saying they would not support such a U.S. confrontation with Iraq, but in Bahrain earlier today, Vice President Cheney saying in one case, the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who he met with last night, that he was told about public reports that Saudi Arabia was so opposed. It would not allow the United States to use its bases there. He says that some of those reports are "uninformed."

So we are being told by senior U.S. officials in private, it has been a much more encouraging trip for the Vice President than you would get the sense if you read the papers here and listen to the pronouncements of many of the Arab leaders. But Mr. Cheney conceding, Miles, that in this region, the Arab leaders are preoccupied with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It makes it harder, not impossible, but quite difficult to discuss issues like Iraq.

The Vice President is in Qatar. He visits Kuwait city in the morning, then he moves on to Israel, and he said by the time he gets there, he hopes when he sits down with the President's Special Envoy General Anthony Zinni, he hopes by then there's a cease fire in place. Miles. O'BRIEN: Well I'm curious, John. I know you're not able to be a fly on the wall for these meetings, but as the Vice President points to the prima facie evidence that the U.S. is more engaged in the Middle East with General Zinni there, is he getting perhaps a little more traction than he might have otherwise with these Arab leaders, as he talks about some sort of action against Iraq?

KING: What we've been told throughout the trip is, if you look at the public perception of the Arab world, they believe this administration, the Bush Administration, has been pro-Israel in its policy. They specifically cite the President's repeated refusal to meet with Yasser Arafat. They think 10 years of sanctions on the Iraqi government have left Saddam Hussein still in power, but punished the Iraqi people.

So there is a great sense of some anti-American sentiment among rank and file Arabs, among the government officials the Vice President's meeting with. They say there is more of an understanding of the U.S. position, but the Vice President acknowledged today, he said everyone he has met with wants him to deal first and foremost with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. They don't rule out conversations with Iraq, and just today, word that the Saudi Crown Prince will now come to the United States and meet with President Bush at the ranch in Crawford, Texas.

So this is a consultative process, and everyone tells us no military confrontation is imminent, perhaps several months down the road the issue of Iraq will be address. Difficult diplomacy at every stop of this trip, Miles, so evident that it's complicated that these Arab nations want the Bush Administration to apply its leverage on the Sharon government and get a cease fire declared.

O'BRIEN: CNN's John King on the bus with the boys on the bus and the girls on the bus following the Vice President in Qatar. Thanks very much.

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