'Jury still out' on Iraq WMD - Cheney
US Vice President Dick Cheney said that the Bush administration has not given up on the so far fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The “jury is still out”, he said.
“It’s going to take some additional, considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubby holes and the ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you might expect to find something like that,” Mr Cheney said in an interview yesterday with National Public Radio (NPR) in the US.
“It doesn’t take a large storage space to store deadly toxins, or even just the capacity to produce it.”
Mr Cheney also said that he is confident that there was a relationship between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. The US administration, however, has said in the past that there is no evidence that Saddam was behind the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
“I continue to believe – I think there’s overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between
al-Qaida and the Iraqi government,” Mr Cheney said. “I’m very confident that there was an established relationship there.”
Mr Cheney spoke the day before he leaves on a five-day trip to Europe, where he will seek help in the war on terrorism, speak out against the spread of weapons and attempt to smooth ruffled relations with allies.
In just his second foreign trip since taking office with President George W Bush around three years ago, Mr Cheney leaves today for Davos in Switzerland, to address the World Economic Forum. After that, he will visit Rome.
The US administration’s relations with some European allies and the UN soured after the invasion of Iraq. Now, Washington wants the world body to help resolve a dispute with a top Shiite cleric over the best way to transfer power to the Iraqis.
“I don’t have a fundamental objection to the UN per se,” Mr Cheney told NPR. “I do think their role has to be focused. The US is still going to be there for some considerable period of time dealing with the security issues. The UN simply doesn’t have the kind of forces to do what we do.
“I think there is a role for them in helping with the political transition, helping get up elections, maybe working with the Iraqis in terms of establishing constitutional processes – how the interim government’s going to work.”
Mr Cheney’s address at the economic forum on Saturday is expected to offer a long-term perspective on the global war on terror and echo the administration’s optimistic assessment of post-war Iraq and the US economy.
After bitter arguments with allies about the war in Iraq, the administration believes that trans-Atlantic relations are improving. The Vice President will meet with foreign officials in Davos what the administration sees as an opportunity to keep the lines of communication open.
In Rome, Mr Cheney will meet and have dinner with Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, a chief backer of the Iraq war. He also plans to visit the Pope and meet with Italy’s President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
