The Dick keeps doing what he does best: miscalculating and failing

All signs point to Cheney trip failing its objectives

By Abdul Jalil Mustafa

US Vice President Dick Cheney ended a Middle East tour on Monday amid signs that he had failed in forging an Arab alliance in supptort of a possible US strike against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, according to Jordanian politicians and academics. Cheney has also been apparently unsuccessful in drawing backing to the ailing Shiite-led Iraqi government of Nuri al-Maliki from the predominantly Sunni states of the so-called Arab quartet - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt, they said. "I don't think that Cheney has been able to convince these Arab countries to become allies of the Unites States against Iran," Mohammad Abu Hudaib, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the lower house of parliament told dpa.

"I don't believe Arab countries are prepared to support any new crazy behaviour in the region, given Washington's failure to give due regard to the advice of Arab countries concerning the situation in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said. Abu Hudaib referred to a growing disappointment on the part of Arab leaders over the cool reaction from the administration of President George W Bush to the Arab Peace plan that was re-launched at the Riyadh summit at the end of March. The Arab summit made it clear that priority should be given to an Arab-Israeli settlement which they considered key for resolving all hot issues in the region, including the situation in Iraq.

Arab leaders also issued an appeal for curbing Shiite militias, widely believed to be playing havoc with the Iraqi security, and involving the Sunni community in a true and meaningful peace process as prerequisites for a breakthrough in the deteriorating Iraqi situation. "The US administration is apparently haunted by the Iranian nuclear case and the crisis it is suffering from in Iraq and is not heeding what is going on in Palestine," Abu Hudaib said. "The Americans may think that a military strike against Iran could bring them out of their ordeal in Iraq, but this is not the case, because the Iranians have understood the rules of the game and they are exploiting the US crisis in Iraq to go ahead with their nuclear ambitions," he added.

The Iranian nuclear issue and the situation in Iraq topped Cheney's talks with Jordan's King Abdullah at the Red Sea port of Aqaba earlier Monday and before that with UAE, Saudi and Egyptian leaders. The monarch reflected the viewpoint of Jordan and other Arab leaders when he urged a "peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear case in order to avert further tension and turmoil in the region," an Amman-based Arab diplomat said. Iraq's Arab neighbours always believed that a US strike on Iran with the aim of halting Tehren's nuclear program would be a "catastrophe," he added.

This analysis was shared by head of the Political Science Department at the University of Jordan Faisal Al-Rofoua. While castigating Iran for its "expansionist schemes in the region and endeavours to convert people from the Sunni to the Shiite ideology," Al-Rofoua considered these factors as insufficient justification for Arab countries to rally behind the United States. "I believe Arab states are inclined to bow to the US storm but at the same time to behave in a rational manner towards Iranian machinations out of the conviction that the United States will leave this area one day but the Iranians will remain our neighbours with whom we should learn how to coexist," Al-Rofoua told dpa.

Original article posted here.