Bush: Cheney to prod, 'reassure' on Middle East trip

Bush and Olmert

by Olivier Knox

Mon Mar 10, 5:04 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said Monday he was sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Middle East next week to help push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before they leave office next year. ADVERTISEMENT

"His goal is to reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East, that we expect the relevant parties to uphold their obligations," said Bush, whose term ends in January 2009.

Cheney -- who leaves March 16 bound for Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey -- will also pursue US diplomatic efforts to isolate Iran and prod US oil-exporting allies to help rein in skyrocketing prices.

The vice president was to meet with key figures in the battered Middle East peace process, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

Escalating violence recently has cast renewed doubt on Bush's hopes to hammer out a Middle East peace deal creating a Palestinian state -- or at least agreed-upon guidelines for creating one -- before he leaves office.

"I'm optimistic that leaders will step forward and do the hard things necessary, so people don't have to live in deprivation and fear," Bush said as he met with Poland's prime minister at the White House.

Cheney's trip, which his office said would last about 10 days, was to fall under the long shadow of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq -- March 19, 2003 in Washington and March 20 in Baghdad.

It was not clear whether Cheney, who last year made unannounced stops in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, would go to Iraq.

But "the vice president will be taking a very vocal message to the Middle East that progress in Iraq is necessary for peace in the Middle East," said Bush, whose popularity lies at near-record lows largely because of the war.

Cheney's visit follows a Middle East mission by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who secured a promise from Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks suspended amid a recent escalation in violence.

Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas held their fire around the Gaza Strip on Monday as Egypt worked to broker a deal to end violence and lift the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Palestinians said the two sides have made headway towards a truce, but Israel, while stressing the army would not hit Hamas-run Gaza if militants stopped firing rockets, insisted it was not negotiating a ceasefire.

But Jerusalem authorities announced a decision to build a new Jewish settlement in the annexed eastern part of the city, a move that could undermine efforts to revive faltering peace talks.

Bush declined to explicitly condemn the plan, but declared: "We expect both parties involved in the Middle Eastern peace process to adhere to their obligations in the road map, and those obligations are clear."

The internationally drafted document calls for Palestinians to halt attacks on Israel and for Israel to freeze settlement activity, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to criticize Israel over the plan.

"Reasonable people can disagree with different aspects of it," she said, but neither Israel nor the Palestinians are "moving fast enough" on their road-map obligations.

Perino said Cheney would prod Saudi King Abdullah to pressure fellow OPEC members to increase oil output, as the already sputtering US economy faces soaring gasoline prices that will shape the November US presidential elections.

The vice president's stop in Turkey will reaffirm close US ties with its NATO ally, she said.