Cheney On Iran & Syria.

In an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Vice President Cheney on Oct. 21 warned the theocracy: "Given the nature of Iran's rulers, the declarations of the Iranian president, and the trouble the regime is causing throughout the region - including the direct involvement in the killing of Americans - our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfils its most aggressive ambitions. The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences...The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon".

In his nearly 30-minute speech, an uncompromising defence of the Bush administration's record in the Middle East, Cheney said that, with Washington's "surge" strategy working well against al-Qaeda in Iraq (see ood4-IraqKurd-PartitionOct29-07), the "greatest strategic threat that Iraq's Shi'ites face today in consolidating their rightful role in Iraq's new democracy is the subversive activities of the Iranian regime".

Cheney accused "Syria and its agents" of using "bribery and intimidation...to prevent the democratic majority in Lebanon from electing a truly independent president", saying: "Lebanon has the right to conduct the upcoming elections free of any foreign interference... The United States will work with Free Lebanon's other friends and allies to preserve Lebanon's hard-won independence, and to defeat the forces of extremism and terror that threaten not only that region, but US [allied] countries across the wider region".

WINEP, a generally hawkish think-tank, was founded some 20 years ago by the research director of the highly influential lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and is funded by many of the same donors. AIPAC, in turn, has led a high-powered effort to persuade Congress to impose tough new sanctions against Iran and foreign companies which do business with it.

As Cheney himself noted on Oct. 21, his national security adviser, John Hannah, once served as WINEP's deputy director. While WINEP does not take specific positions on pending legislation or policies, it is generally regarded as sympathetic to AIPAC's efforts and often provides the research AIPAC uses in its lobbying activities.

Cheney's speech was remarkable on several counts, beginning with the fact that it came less than a week after Defence Secretary Gates gave a much more restrained presentation on US Middle East policy and the threat posed by Iran to a yet more-hawkish pro-Israel group, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. While Gates called Tehran's government "an ambitious and fanatical theocracy", he stressed the importance of diplomatic pressure and, in marked contrast to Cheney, dwelt much more heavily on the threats posed by al-Qaeda and other Neo-Salafi groups.

The rhetorical differences - including Gates' effort to distinguish between Sunni jihadism and Iran and Cheney's attempts to blur the two - could not be more pronounced. Cheney's speech was notable for its aggressive and unapologetic defence of the Bush administration's conduct of its "war on terrorism"; its insistence that the "surge" turned the tide of the war in Iraq; and its repetition of neo-conservative notions about the importance of reacting with "swift and dire" punishment against challenges to US power in the region and the possibility that Tehran is deeply threatened by the emergence of "a strong, independent, Arab Shi'ite community" in Iraq.

Cheney said Iran was a "growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East", and he recited a long litany of grievances against it. He said: "This same regime that approved of hostage-taking in 1979, that attacked Saudi and Kuwaiti shipping in the 1980s, that incited suicide bombings and jihadism in the 1990s and beyond, is now the world's most active state sponsor of terror". He quoted the US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, for the proposition that Iran was fighting a "proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq", adding: "Fearful of a strong, independent, Arab Shi'ite community emerging in Iraq, one that seeks guidance not in Qom, Iran, but from traditional sources of Shi'ite authority in Najaf and Karbala', the Iranian regime also aims to keep Iraq in a state of weakness that prevents Baghdad from presenting a threat to Tehran".

Cheney blamed the Quds Force for providing "weapons, money and training to terrorists and Sunni militant groups abroad, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad; militants in the Balkans, the Taliban and other anti-Afghanistan militants; and Hizbullah "terrorists trying to destabilise Lebanon's democratic government".

Cheney strongly implied Washington continued to seek regime change in Iran, noting that "the irresponsible conduct of the ruling elite in Tehran is a tragedy for all Iranians" and insisting that "the spirit of freedom is stirring Iran...America looks forward to the day when Iranians reclaim their destiny; the day that our two countries, as free and democratic nations, can be the closest of friends".

Iran dominated the last 10 minutes of his speech. By contrast, Lebanon received only two paragraphs, while the administration's efforts to renew US-Palestinian peace talks drew only the briefest of mentions. Bush, he said, had "announced a meeting to be held in Annapolis later this year to review the progress towards building Palestinian institutions, to seek innovative ways to support further reform, to provide diplomatic support to the parties, so that we can move forward on the path to a Palestinian state".