U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney kicked off on Sunday his 10-day visit to the Middle East that includes Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey. Cheney's Mideast trip occurs some two months after U.S. President George W. Bush visited the region and less than two weeks after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Cheney is expected to have "discussions with these key partners on issues of mutual interest," the White House said in a statement. Observers here believed that the vice president will be trying through the visit to, among others, push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, seek support for Iraq on the occasion of 5th anniversary of Iraq war.
SPUR PEACE TALKS
There is a fact that can not be ignored: of all the Mideast countries visited or to be visited by U.S. top decision makers since the beginning this year, both Israel and the Palestinian autonomous region feature their successive visits.
Like what Bush and Rice did in their visits to the region to promote installed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the latest visit by Cheney is apparently to renew the Bush administration's effort to shore up talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Cheney's visit to Israel and the West Bank is to "reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East," and to seek assurances that "relevant parties ...uphold their obligations under the road map," Bush told reporters days before Cheney's departure for the Middle East.
However, it is not at all optimistic for the public to expect any important progress in this field as Cheney began his Mideast tour amid increasing conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The mood has deteriorated incredibly in the last six weeks since the president was there," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"From the outside it's very hard to see that Secretary Rice was able to even arrest the slide let alone get things moving forward. My guess is the vice president will be able to arrest the slide if not necessarily put things on track," local media quoted the Mideast expert as saying.
GET IRAQ SUPPORTED
As the 5th anniversary of U.S.-led Iraq war is approaching, U.S. officials have begun negotiating with their Iraqi counterparts over formal arrangements for a long-term relationship in the political, economic and security fields between the two sides.
In hopes of having Iraq's pro-U.S. government got wide support in the Arab world, the United States has been expecting Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to demonstrate their full support to Iraq's new government by appointing an ambassador and opening an embassy in Baghdad.
"The United States can do a lot for Iraq, but we cannot provide Iraq with an anchor in the Arab world, a kind of legitimacy for the new Iraqi project that comes from being fully integrated in its neighborhood," said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified.
"And I think clearly some of our friends in the Arab world can do more on that score," the official said of Cheney's coming visit to Oman and Saudi Arabia.
But some analysts have doubt about any major breakthroughs when Cheney talks about the matter with Arab countries.
"I don't think that he's going to be able to bring back anything meaningful because he's got nothing to offer," said Steven Simon, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"He represents a lame duck president, a floundering economy, a situation in which the U.S. for all its efforts in Iraq has no leverage on the government in Baghdad," Simon noted.
IRAN, PKK CONCERNED
Of all Mideast issues, Iran has been on top of the White House agenda. Local media quoted an unidentified U.S. official as reporting that Cheney will tell leaders of the allied countries that Iran remains to be grave concern of the United States, and that Iran's growing regional influence must be contained.
"I expect in all of these countries that the challenge we face from Iran will be a very high topic of conversation," the official said.
On Turkey, which is the last stop of Cheny, the official said that Cheney will send a message to Turkish leaders that the United States will continue supporting Ankara to fight against Turkey's separatist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), listed by both the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group.
Source:Xinhua
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