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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3300)	3/18/2002 5:27:25 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Arab leaders tell Cheney that Iraq is not the priority Matthew Engel in Washington Monday March 18, 2002 The Guardian The American vice-president, Dick Cheney, nearing the end of a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, tried yesterday to shrug off reports that Arab leaders everywhere had told him that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein should not be a priority, and that it was unthinkable unless Israel softened its attitude towards the Palestinians. This followed a television interview by Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective ruler of Saudi Arabia, who told the American network, ABC, that a military campaign against Iraq was not in anyone's interests, adding: "And I don't believe it will achieve the desired result." Mr Cheney implied that he received a different message from Prince Abdullah in private. He described their meeting on Saturday as "very warm and friendly". The prince yesterday accepted an invitation to visit the Bush ranch in Texas, the president's ultimate signal of respect. Saudi-American relations, which had become dangerously cool, have warmed up again following the US's sympathetic response to the Saudis' Middle East peace plan. However, in Bahrain, Crown Prince Salman also gave the Americans a warning at a joint news conference with Mr Cheney. "The people who are dying in the streets today are not the result of Iraqi action, the people who are dying today are the result of Israeli action." Mr Cheney admitted that the Palestinian crisis was "a preoccupation for everyone in the region". He described talk of an imminent US attack on Iraq as "a speculative bubble that needed to be burst". And the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, regarded as the administration's fiercest hawk on Iraq, told CNN that the president had taken no decision on the subject. "Our preference is always to solve things through diplomatic means if at all possible," he said. After visiting Qatar last night, Mr Cheney was due to hold talks today in Kuwait, whose invasion by Iraq precipitated the 1991 Gulf war, and then fly to Israel to meet Ariel Sharon tomorrow. Mr Cheney's style on the trip has caused adverse comment. He swept past a girl in Jordan who was offering him flowers; even on the US aircraft carrier Stennis, he rejected an opportunity to shake hands with workers on the flight deck. · Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, arrived in Tunisia yesterday on the second leg of a north African tour aimed at rallying opposition to a strike on Iraq. Earlier, he met the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy, in Tripoli. guardian.co.uk