Cheney to tackle Middle East issues on 12-nation trip

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration served blunt notice Friday that new U.N. weapons inspections for Iraq would not necessarily head off a confrontation between Washington and Baghdad.

But senior U.S. officials also made clear it would be wrong to assume that a central goal of Vice President Cheney's trip to the Middle East next week was to build support for imminent military action.

Cheney told reporters Friday he expected a new U.S. diplomatic push to rein in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be a major focus at every stop on the 12-nation trip. And he said he will seek to convince Arab leaders to strengthen their own intelligence and law enforcement efforts to prevent the al Qaeda terrorist network from establishing a new major base of operations now that its base in Afghanistan has been disrupted.

"Part of the effort here as well is to make certain that we don't allow a sanctuary to develop somewhere else," Cheney told reporters who will be traveling with him on the trip.

Cheney plans to leave Sunday. His trip includes stops in England, Oman, Egypt, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Israel.

Cheney did not mention Iraq in his statement to reporters, although he did say his conversations would include "the continuing war on terrorism" and U.S. concerns about developments in the region not limited to Afghanistan.

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"In most cases I am dealing with people I have dealt with before," Cheney said. It was an indirect reference to his tenure as defense secretary in the first Bush administration to build support for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

A senior administration official who answered questions about the vice president's agenda cautioned "don't overdo the historical analogies here" noting the very different circumstances; an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait back then that the official said posed "a major threat to the region" versus the current war on terrorism, which involves "a very different type of military operation" and stems not from an attack in the region but from an attack on the United States.

Inspections must be unconditional, U.S. says

Still, the official said Iraq is certain to be a major topic of the discussions, and made clear the administration is holding fast to its resolve to confront Iraq over what this senior U.S. official said were clear violations of its commitments to the United Nations to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.

"We know they have not ended weapons of mass destruction," the official said.

The United Nations is considering a new Iraqi sanctions regime that would include the return of U.N. weapons inspectors who were thrown out of Iraq three years ago.

The senior U.S. official said the United States would consider inspections a course worth pursuing only if the regime allowed "anywhere, anytime" inspections.

"Any inspections regime that has any conditions on it is unacceptable," the official said. To illustrate the point, the official said the U.S. has learned far more about Iraqi weapons programs from defectors than it did when United Nations inspectors were operating inside Iraq because of limitations imposed on those inspectors by the Iraqi government.

Signaling the U.S. strategy for the weeks and months ahead, the official cautioned reporters not to "fall into the trap of assuming the objective is inspections. The issue is weapons of mass destruction" and getting rid of those weapons.

Still, this senior official and another top administration official who discussed the trip agenda declined to answer most questions about potential military options or timetables. But the more senior official did say, "It would be wrong for you to expect [the vice president is] going out to announce that military action is imminent."

Several top Arab leaders have said it would be a mistake for the United States to expand its war on terrorism to include Iraq, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah among them.

In private conversations, U.S. officials say many leaders in the region have voiced exasperation with the regime in Baghdad but warn against Arab reaction if there should be an American military campaign against Iraq.

Bush to deliver major speech on war

White House aides also said President Bush will deliver a major speech Monday discussing his views on progress in the war against terrorism so far and his goals as the campaign continues in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Monday marks six months since the September 11th strikes on New York and the Pentagon.

"We do not anticipate a return to September 10th," said a senior U.S. official intimately familiar with the agenda for the Cheney trip and the president's planned remarks next week. "This is a concerted, long-term proposition for us. The threat to the United States is very real and we intend to do what is necessary to defend the United States against these types of attacks."

One goal of the Cheney trip is to discuss the role of U.S. military bases and installations across the region in ongoing operations in the war on terrorism, and to gauge the mood of these host nations as the effort continues.

Another goal is to improve military-to-military relations, intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation, especially when it comes to terrorism.

A more senior official who briefed reporters said "there is some evidence the president's words" and the military operation in Afghanistan have had a positive impact on relationships with nations in the region, and that Cheney's trip is designed to build on these relationships.

Yemen is a major concern because of existing al Qaeda terrorist cells and the possibility of al Qaeda operatives fleeing Afghanistan to find safe haven. And a U.S. official said Egypt was of specific concern, because of the historical ties of some of its extremist Islamic groups to al Qaeda.

At several stops, Yemen among them, Cheney will discuss options for using U.S. military training and equipment to help friendly states confront terrorism problems within their borders.