Barbara Starr: Rumsfeld's tough talk on Iraq

CNN's Barbara Starr

(CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday portrayed Iraq as a continuing threat in the Middle East with an ongoing program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Rumsfeld, who is touring Persian Gulf states to shore up support for U.S. presence in the region, avoided questions about future military action against Iraq.

CNN Correspondent Barbara Starr discussed Rumsfeld's comments Monday with CNN anchor Bill Hemmer.

MORE STORIES Rumsfeld: Iraq a continuing threat

STARR: The secretary held a press conference in Kuwait City [on Monday] morning just before leaving to come here to Bahrain, and he was exceptionally blunt in his language indeed. He said the Iraqis were lying, that they had weaponized chemical weapons, and he was certain they were continuing to work on their biological weapons and their nuclear weapons.

And then he got even tougher in his language. He was asked by the Kuwaiti press corps about the reconciliation between Kuwait and Iraq that has now taken place most recently at the Arab League summit in Beirut.

And the secretary of defense said to a room full of reporters, including many in the Kuwaiti press, that he viewed that reconciliation possibility as something like the lion inviting the chicken into the den. [He created] a little bit of a faux pas, perhaps not realizing that he was calling the Kuwaitis chickens. His language was very, very tough.

He also said for the first time that Kuwaiti government representatives will now be allowed to travel to Guantanamo Bay to interview the 12 Kuwaiti detainees being held there. Kuwaiti government officials will interview them to find out what they know about possible future terrorist activities. The trip moves on [Tuesday]. We move on to the Asian subcontinent, on to India and Pakistan, which is likely to be very newsworthy.

HEMMER: Given the events of the past few days, where it appears optimism has been raised considerably, thinking that war has been averted for now between these two countries, what's the message from Donald Rumsfeld when he arrives there?

STARR: Well, Donald Rumsfeld, as everyone knows, is a very, very cautious man. He did say [Monday] morning that he felt at least things were not escalating. But he is going to take one very tough message to both the Indians and the Pakistanis, and it's going to be a businessman's message.

He's going to say to them, "Look, the reason you people cannot afford to go to war is that if war breaks out it will be an economic disaster." It's not that countries will cut off their relations, it's not that foreign aid will be stopped; it is that the private sector, the business community around the world, will then view India and Pakistan both as places that are very dangerous to invest. They will pull their investments, and that the economies in both of those countries will sink.

But he also made another interesting point [Monday] morning. He was much tougher in his assessment about the possibility that al Qaeda is behind some of what has been going on in Kashmir. Up until now, he has said only that there are rumors of al Qaeda involvement. For the first time [Monday], he indeed said that there were scraps of intelligence, possibly hard information that al Qaeda is involved in Kashmir.