ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 6 - Cheney Urges Calm On Islam's Role In Iraq.

In a lengthy interview on Fox-TV, Vice President Dick Cheney turns aside concerns the emerging government in Iraq might be strongly Islamic and might even set more restrictive standards on the rights of women than those of men. Cheney, also expressed a strong preference for a diplomatic resolution to tensions over the Iranian nuclear program, which have given rise to speculation about possible administration planning for a limited military strike. Leading Shiite theologians in Iraq, whose religious parties appear likely to take power in the new constitutional assembly, have been pushing for a clear Islamic component to the country's new constitution, with matters such as marriage and divorce made subject to Koranic law and daughters able to inherit only half as much as sons. But Cheney appeared cautious and sanguine on the subject. He said: We have to be very careful here. We're trying to forecast what an as-yet-unformed government is going to do. This is going to be Iraqi, whatever it is. It's not going to be American. It's not going to look like Wyoming or New York when they get their political process all put together". Cheney also said that the leading Shiite political parties had shown no interest in setting a deadline for a US withdrawal, even though Sunni parties reportedly had been negotiating with them to do so. Def Sec Rumsfeld, meanwhile, sought to clarify the exact US conditions for withdrawing from Iraq. Pres Bush said Feb 9 in his State of the Union message that success would come when Iraq had become "a country that is democratic, representative of all its people, at peace with its neighbors, and able to defend itself". But Rumsfeld said that the reference to self-defense had not been to Iraqis' ability to defend itself against external attack but rather to its ability to maintain peace internally. The comment seemed to raise questions. A US decision to pull out and leave behind an Iraq without a fully armed, trained and effective army and air force - thus vulnerable to attack from a neighbor like Iran - would be controversial. But for Iraqis to achieve the ability to deter attack from a neighbor like Iran could take "many years" more, Rumsfeld said. Yet he appeared to indicate that a US withdrawal would not ignore any threat from Iran and Syria, saying, "We don't know the extent to which they're going to be unhelpful or helpful". Cheney said he doubted that Iraqi Shiites would be strongly influenced by what he said was the failed theocratic approach of their Shiite brethren in Iran. He said: The Iraqis have watched the Iranians operate for years and create a religious theocracy that has been a dismal failure". An Iraqi constitution based on Koranic law would depart sharply from the transitional law US enacted before appointing an interim government led by PM Ayad Allawi. US officials pressed for guarantees in that document of equal rights for women and minorities, as they had done earlier in Afghanistan; the transitional Iraqi document cites Islam only as "a source" of legislation. But some senior Shiite theologians, confident of a broad mandate from the Jan 30 elections, want Islam to be the official underpinning of the government. How that plays out as Iraqi politicians come together in a constitutional assembly this year is far from certain. Fundamentalist Shiites will be vying with secular-minded groups, and must negotiate with Kurds, who can exercise veto power over the new constitution, and with Sunnis, whose inclusion is essential to Iraqi cohesion. A move toward a Koran-based constitution would nonetheless be resisted by secular forces in Iraq, and might prove alarming for some in the US. Cheney said he was comforted by the public pronouncements of Grand Ayat Ali Al Sistani, Iraq's revered Shiite leader, who had made clear that "he doesn't believe theologians should play a direct role in the day-to-day operations of government". Both Cheney and Rumsfeld appeared to play down recent suggestions that the Bush administration might be preparing for possible military strikes on suspected Iranian nuclear targets. Rumsfeld said he thought Iran was years from building a nuclear weapon. And Cheney said that Iran had been working with the British, French and Germans to resolve concerns about its nuclear program, adding, "We support that effort, an effort to try to resolve diplomatically, to get the Iranians to give up their aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons".