Arabs Give Cheney the Boot to the End

May 15 (EIRNS)--Leading Arab dailies greeted Vice President Dick Cheney on his arrival in their region May 8 with editorials calling for this "criminal" to go home and be impeached, and for his send-off before finally leaving the region on May 14, he received harsh lectures from more Arab heads of state.

EIR warned in advanced that Cheney was going to the region to inform Arab countries that military confrontation with Iran is coming, probably by Israel, but don't you boys worry, the Bush-Cheney administration will be right there to "protect" you from the devastating backlash which such an insane move would provoke.

No Arab government was so insane as to believe that one! In his closed door meeting with Cheney on his last day, Jordanian King Abdullah II demanded a "peaceful resolution to the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities," and insisted the United States back the Arab peace initiative for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, fast, because "time is not on anyone's side," according to an Associated Press report.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak delivered essentially the same message on May 13, according to a strongly-worded editorial published in the Egyptian official daily Al-Ahram on May 15.

The editorial on "Egypt's View of Stopping the Conflict in the Region" said that" Egypt has a clear and unequivocal stance on how to bring down the tension in the region," the three points of which were made quite clear to Cheney by President Mubarak:

1. "The Palestinian issue is the key to dealing with the other crisis in the region. The Arab peace initiative does not need more clarification. What it needs is a response from Israel. The Israeli elite have not yet accepted the peace initiative."

2. The government of Egypt believes the political process in Iraq is key, and "the solution in Iraq will depend on national reconciliation among the Iraqis themselves."

3. Any military confrontation with Iran around the Iranian nuclear program, "would have dangerous consequences for the whole region".