*EPF502 02/15/2002
White House Report: Cheney Speech to Council on Foreign Relations
(Says U.S. must take multifaceted approach to Iraq) (400)

"Iraq is ... very much of concern" to the United States, Vice President Richard Cheney told the Council on Foreign Relations February 15.

Speaking at a luncheon in Washington, Cheney said the important point is to have a multifaceted approach as the United States focuses on what comes next in combating the threat of terrorism.

Some moves the United States makes will be public, he said, while others will probably never see the light of day. In any event, the United States will use all means at its disposal to combat the threat of terror in combination with the possible use of weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq, Cheney said, has a robust program to develop weapons of mass destruction, and has used them, both on its enemy, Iran, and on its own people. The Iraqi regime has also had dealings with terrorists such as Abu Nidal, who had an office in Baghdad, he said. Thus, he said, Iraq must be a state the United States focuses on.

Discussing Iran in the question-and-answer session that followed the speech, Cheney said he has been "deeply disappointed" by the conduct of the Iranian government in recent months. Iran seems committed to trying to destroy the peace process in the Middle East, he said, and it continues to try to develop weapons of mass destruction, he added.

Cheney stressed the "strategic dimension" of administration energy policy. Everything made and sold by the United States, even the "clean, quiet operation of a computer" made by U.S. companies, requires energy, he said. "We must continue our progress in energy efficiency and conservation, and we must increase energy production," he said.

International trade benefits the United States both domestically and abroad, Cheney said, accounting for 26 percent of the U.S. economy and an even higher percentage of the agricultural sector. The production of one of every three acres in use by farmers and ranchers ends up being exported, he said.

U.S. growth also fuels the world economy, Cheney noted. And it is the less-developed nations whose societies can benefit the most from investment by and free trade with the developed world, and especially the United States, he said.

"[C]ommerce and open institutions" has transformed countries "once poor but now stabl and prosperous" such as Japan, Chile and South Korea, Cheney said.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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