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- (EIRNS) -- A well-placed and highly reliable source
has provided the following account of Vice President Dick Cheney's Nov.
25, 2006 visit to Saudi Arabia. The report coincides with other evidence
of a scheme to induce the United States to self-destruct. While the source
may have missed some elements of the picture emerging from the Cheney visit,
the essential details appear to be accurate. As will be clear when you
read below, all sane forces inside the United States and elsewhere must
react to these latest Cheney actions in the most effective pre-emptive
fashion.
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- The source reported:
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- 1. The essential message delivered to Saudi Arabia's
King Abdullah by Vice President Cheney was that there is no basis for dialogue
withIran. The U.S. position in the region has been weakened, and therefore
a new security architecture must be established, particularly in the Persian
Gulf, to contain and counter Iran's growing influence. Already, NATO has
been in dialogue with Qatar and Kuwait, in pursuit of closer, upgraded
cooperation. Cheney proposed to establish a new regional balance of power,
through a Sunni Arab alliance with Israel, to confront the Iranian threat.
Cheney argued that to negotiate with Iranat this time would be tantamount
to surrender. A new military organization will be built, involving the
Gulf Cooperation Council states, Egypt, and Jordan. NATO and the United
States will be closely involved, and Israel will be a de facto participant.
These moves led by Cheney obviously aim to pre-empt adoption by the Bush
Administration of any recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study
Group, to initiate diplomatic talks with Iran.
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- 2. Cheney took the lead in proposing this new security
architecture. There is, at this point, a consensus inside the Bush Administration
to pursue this policy. When President Bush arrives later this week inAmman,
Jordan, to meet with Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki, he may also hold secret
talks with several senior Syrian officials. In that meeting, President
Bush will bluntly offer Syria the opportunity to break its ties to Iran
and join in the emerging Sunni Arab bloc.
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- 3. The approach to Syria coincides with a major effort,
withinLebanon, to force Michel Aoun to break his alliance with Hezbollah,
in the wake of the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel. Over
the weekend, there was a meeting of leading Maronites, sponsored by Patriarch
Sfeir, aimed at tightening the pressure on Aoun to break with Hezbollah,
and join a Sunni Arab, Christian, Druze coalition to counter Hezbollah's
power. Were the Syrians to accept the Bush offer (highly unlikely), they
would be expected to pressure Hezbollah to disarm, as a condition for negotiations
to get the Golan Heights back from Israel.
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- 4. Condi Rice's planned meeting with Mahmoud Abbas and
Ehud Olmert is aimed at kick-starting the Israeli-Palestinian talks. But
the key to the Israeli policy will be to complete the construction of the
wall, and to build similar walls of separation along the border withLebanon.
The argument is that both Hamas and Hezbollah represent extensions of Iran's
influence into the areas bordering on Israel, and they must be contained.
The "peace" offer being put on the table will center on these
walls of separation.
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- 5. Iran is already aware of these Cheney-led initiatives.
While Arab governments will assume that Iran will react and respond to
the attempt to create this Sunni Arab-U.S.-Israel security architecture
to confront Iran by playing for sectarian conflict in Iraq, Lebanon and
elsewhere, sources caution that Iran is taking a more sophisticated view.
Recurring statements by President Ahmadinejad are calculated to instigate
an Israeli attack on Iran's purported nuclear weapons sites. Iran anticipates
some kind of attack on these sites-either by the United States or Israel.
Iran would prefer an Israeli attack for several reasons. First, the United
States has far more significant military capabilities to strike Iran than
Israel does. Second, any Israeli attack on a Muslim country would trigger
a revolt on the Arab streets.Iran carefully studied the response of the
population throughout the Persian Gulf and Arab world to the Israeli attacks
on Lebanon this summer. They anticipate massive Arab support, across the
sectarian Shi'ite-Sunni divide, for Iran, in the event of an Israeli strike.
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