24 March 2002

Cheney Says Conditions Not Right for a Meeting with Arafat

By Susan Ellis
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Vice President Cheney says Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has not yet done enough to halt violence between Israelis and Palestinians to justify a return to the region for a meeting with the Palestinian leader.

Interviewed March 24 on the NBC news program "Meet the Press," Cheney said an arrangement was worked out during his recent visit to the region "signed by both [Israeli] Prime Minister Sharon and Yasser Arafat" that the parties move forward aggressively in trying to implement the [CIA Director George] Tenet plan -- "such things as regular security meetings on both sides, sharing of intelligence, and denying anybody the opportunity to use their territory to attack the other party.

"What I said was if Arafat will actively implement Tenet to the satisfaction of [special U.S. envoy] General [Anthony] Zinni, then I was prepared to meet with Arafat. So far conditions on the ground have not warranted my going forward with the meeting."

Cheney added "Hopefully, Zinni will make some progress, but we're not there yet." General Zinni recently was designated by President Bush to return to the Middle East to help mediate an end to the violence.

One of the conditions Cheney said he wants Arafat to meet is to make a statement in Arabic to his people that the attacks must cease. Asked about permitting Arafat to go to Beirut to join in the Arab League summit March 27-28, Cheney said there is a division of opinion in the Israeli government on that but "we believe it would be better for him to be there," or otherwise the focus of the meetings would be on him instead of broader issues.

Asked about whether the U.S. is willing to commit U.S. troops, "working with Palestinians to guarantee Israeli security" in the area, Cheney said this a "tough question." He said that while the United States is "willing to do everything we can to be of assistance," it would be necessary first to "prove how the presence of U.S. troops would help. At the end, there must be a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians that both would abide by."

On Iraq, Cheney was asked whether there has been any evidence as yet of a "linkage between Saddam Hussein and Iraq and al Qaida and Osama bin Ladin," as a recent New Yorker magazine article suggested.

Cheney spoke of the article's "devastating" account of the after-effects of chemical attacks by Iraq on their own Kurdish citizens in 1988 -- birth defects, liver cancer in children and other afflictions -- but added "We haven't been able to pin down any connection with al Qaida. We'll continue to look for it."

Responding to the interviewer's remark that the Arab League has said that it was urging the United States not to preemptively attack Iraq "to take out any weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said that in his "private, confidential meetings at every stop," he did not find "a situation in which my hosts were unconcerned about Iraq; they were all concerned. They know that right after us, they're high on his list of governments he'd like to do in."

There is "grave concern" about Saddam Hussein on the United States' part "heightened partly by the events of September 11, which demonstrated our vulnerability," Cheney said, and partly by virtue of the fact there has been evidence of major efforts on the part of al Qaida to acquire weapons of mass destruction capability.

"We don't have any evidence yet that they have (the capability), but they're trying very hard on chemical, bio and nuclear weapons. We're worried by the possible marriage on the one hand of the terrorist organizations and on the other, weapons of mass destruction capability -- the kind of devastating materials that Saddam used against his own people in '88.

"The president has made it abundantly clear that it's a top priority for us and we'll spend whatever time we need seeing to it that this threat is dealt with."

In questioning on Afghanistan, Cheney said the United State has asked Turkey to take on the responsibility for the Afghan International Security Force (ISAF) and to provide security in Kabul. "That's a very important mission and we're hopeful they'll do it. Clearly, we'll continue to have U.S. forces in Afghanistan for some considerable period of time to come. We're there to back up the ISAF, there to work with the Karzai interim authority and the new government once it's stood up."

Acknowledging the rivalry of the country's warlords, Cheney said that ultimately, the answer will be to provide the central government with the capacity "to safeguard all the regions of the country. They'll have to find their own way to do that -- perhaps working with the warlords in various regions."

"We're not going to walk away until Afghanistan is, in fact, secure. We cannot allow Afghanistan to move again to a situation where it's a sanctuary for terrorists. We'll stay as long as necessary till we've completed our mission and eliminated al Qaida and made certain that the terrorist threat is gone," Cheney vowed.

Speaking from McDill Air Force Base in Florida, where he commands the U.S. Central Command's operations in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks said on the same program that 169 days into the effort, the job remaining is to "assure ourselves the al Qaida network inside Afghanistan is destroyed."

It would be "convenient" and "desirable" if the U.S. military had captured bin Ladin and Taliban leader Mullah Omar and some of the other leaders, Franks said. But the U.S. has not failed up to this point since "the purpose of the mission when we started was to destroy the network and we're making progress on getting that done.

"I know for a fact that we've destroyed the Taliban as a governing authority in Afghanistan; in time the personalities will come along."

Asked where all the Taliban have gone, Franks said some have been killed and "a great many have, in fact, joined the forces of the Afghan interim administration. I think that, as in many countries, when an effort starts, a great many citizens will rally to a cause, ... then all of a sudden, circumstances change and they realize there may be a better way. And for a great many people who were loyal to the Taliban, that has come to pass."

Asked if he was concerned that conditions in Afghanistan might revert to those prevailing before the Taliban took control, Franks Said it will be "very difficult for us to view Afghanistan in the near term as a perfect spot. In the past we've seen fractious, contentious behavior in that country and I expect that it's going to continue."

The two elements to beware of, he said, are warlords -- individual militias that exist inside Afghanistan -- and "exterior influences, because there are a great many countries that have interests today" in that country and have had in the past.

"The international community is going to have to remain attentive to both of those points and I think we have the people in place to do that, diplomatically and militarily," Franks said.

Asked about reports in the press that an al Qaida laboratory has been found that was built to produce anthrax in Afghanistan, the general said there are 50 or 60 places "we've been led to believe might contain evidence of the development of weapons of mass destruction (including anthrax).

"We've been into all the known sites; the one you make reference to was in the area of Kandahar where there was evidence of the attempt by bin Ladin to get his hands on weapons of mass destruction, anthrax or a variety of others. What we found in that site and in several others, is evidence of the attempt.

"We have not yet found a place where we've seen weaponized WMD [weapons of mass destruction], weaponized meaning the capability to create the ingredient and then put it in some form of delivery.

"The laboratories, vials and so forth were dedicated to that purpose," he said. There was "lots of work going on, but no evidence that anything got mixed in the right way to create a weapon of mass destruction."