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Cheney,
left, confers with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit at his
official residence in Ankara |
ANKARA,
March 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney left the Middle East Wednesday, without a mandate for
action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, failing to de-escalate
Israeli violence in the region, but promising Turkey financial aid for
peacekeeping in Afghanistan.
The
ten day trip sought support for further steps in the so-called
U.S.-led war on terrorism and Washington's campaign to strike Iraq.
But at stop after stop, Cheney met Arab leaders who he acknowledged
were preoccupied with the increasing Israeli violence and who said
Iraq was a far less pressing priority.
The
message he received was that there would be no support for tough
action against Iraq while Israeli violence raged.
An
early warning came last week from Jordan's King Abdullah, the first
Arab leader he met on the trip and a key U.S. ally. Jordan's location,
sandwiched between Iraq and Israel, makes it particularly sensitive to
both issues.
"I
have told him (Cheney) that the Middle East cannot support two wars at
the same time -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an American
intervention against Iraq," Abdullah told French daily newspaper,
Le Figaro. "To attack Baghdad now would be a disaster. The
security and stability of our region would not be able to cope with
it."
Cheney
has claimed he was not in the region to organize military action
against Iraq. "Military action is not imminent, and that's what I
said at every stop," Cheney told reporters Wednesday. But he has
said the issue of Iraq's weapons goals must be addressed.
Several
Arab leaders urged the United States to become more involved in the
Israeli-Palestinian so-called peace process, and to call on Israel to
let Palestinian President Yasser Arafat attend an Arab summit in
Beirut next week at which a new Saudi peace proposal will be
discussed.
Apparently
Cheney's task of rallying Arab support against Iraq proved harder now
than in the run up to the 1991 Gulf War.
"What
Washington wants the Arab world to endorse is an attempt to overthrow
a sovereign nation's legitimate government in the name of
terrorism," the Qatari English-language newspaper The Peninsula
said in an editorial Monday, the day after Cheney met the country's
leaders.
Meanwhile,
Cheney said Wednesday the United States and Turkey were close to
agreement over plans for Turkey to take over command of an
international security force for Afghanistan (ISAF).
Cheney
told reporters in Ankara, where he is winding up a tour of the Middle
East, that the force would be limited to the Kabul area. Other
arrangements would have to be made for ensuring stability in other
areas of Afghanistan.
The
peacekeeping force, established after a U.S.-backed military campaign
overthrew the Taliban regime, is currently commanded by Britain.
Cheney
said U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan conducting military
operations for "some additional period of time. I can't put a
time frame on it."
"I
think we're pretty close," he said referring to talks with
largely Muslim Turkey on leading the security force. "They've
agreed to consider the possibility."
Issues
outstanding include financial support, how forces would be
transported, communications and intelligence support.
Turkey
had been concerned it could be drawn into fighting still continuing in
parts of Afghanistan involving remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda,
suspected by Washington of being behind the September 11 attacks on
the United States.
Cheney
said that, of $228 million in new aid that the United States is
proposing for Turkey, $28 million would go directly to help pay for
Turkish leadership of the force. The remaining $200 million would be
economic assistance.
He
also dismissed speculation in Turkish media that he had had
disagreements in his meeting with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and
therefore canceled a joint news conference that Ecevit had publicly
anticipated.
"There
was never a plan, as far as I was aware of, for a joint press
conference," Cheney said. He said he understood that "our
embassy had given preliminary approval, I guess, to my holding a press
conference with the Turkish press. But that's not anything we were
signed up to do."
He
said his meeting with Ecevit had gone well. "We had a very good
meeting. He was very pleased." He also said he had told Ecevit
that military action was not imminent against neighboring Iraq.
Turkey
fears that U.S. action against Iraq could cause instability within its
frontiers and disrupt its frail economy.
Turkey
was a staging point for U.S. attacks during the 1991 Gulf War and U.S.
planes continue to be based at Incirlik air base, from which they
patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq.
Turkish
officials suggested that another conflict would wreak havoc on
Turkey's fragile economy. Turkey claims it lost $30 billion in
revenues after the 1991 Gulf War.
