Iran a Key Topic on Cheney's Mideast Tour

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
March 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — High gasoline prices and prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal headline Vice President Cheney's trip to the Middle East, but fears about Iran's rising influence will be a key topic of his private talks at each stop.

Mr. Cheney left yesterday on a 10-day trip that includes visits to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian Arab territories, and Turkey. His trip coincides with the fifth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq, which has tainted the American image in the Middle East and changed the balance of power in the region.

Mr. Cheney is the latest top American official to go the Middle East to coax Israel and moderate Palestinian Arab leaders to move forward on a peace deal. President Bush went to Israel and the West Bank in January. Secretary of State Rice just got back from a troubleshooting mission there, and Mr. Bush is to return in May. Senator McCain, the soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee, and other lawmakers are visiting Israel this week.

Mr. Bush, who relaunched formal peace talks last fall at a conference in Annapolis, Md., has turned a Mideast peace deal into a signature foreign policy goal for his remaining months in office. But violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel has hampered talks between Prime Minister Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr. Bush has made clear that he wants Mr. Cheney to push both men to honor their obligations under the American-backed road map, which calls for the Palestinians Arabs to disarm militants and for Israel to halt settlement construction. Last week, the Bush administration said Israel's recently announced plan to build hundreds of new Jewish homes in disputed areas of the West Bank and east Jerusalem was not helping move the peace plan along.

On Iraq, Mr. Cheney will highlight progress made since the president dispatched 30,000 additional American troops there last summer to help secure the nation and give political leaders a chance to reconcile their differences.

America wants Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to establish a diplomatic presence in Baghdad to help anchor the Iraqi government in the Arab world. In the meantime, the Bush administration feels there is no reason why trade, culture, economic, and foreign ministers from the Arab world shouldn't go to Iraq and engage the new Iraqi government as they would others in the region.