Cheney May Find Mideast A Hard Sell

LONDON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) will find it a hard sell to enlist Arab support for deposing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). He promises no announcements but a lot of listening during his swing through the Middle East.
"I'll be there to conduct frank discussions and to solicit the views of important friends and allies," Cheney said of a trip that will take him to nine Arab nations, Israel and Turkey.

Cheney was beginning the trip on Tuesday in Jordan, where King Abdullah II said ahead of the visit that, while Jordan supports the U.S.-led war on terrorism, it "rejects the use of force against Iraq."

Turkey has also warned the United States that a military strike against neighboring Iraq could destabilize the region. Leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt also oppose a military campaign against Iraq.

The Bush administration is mindful of the Arab world's suspicions of any widening of the terror war into its neighborhood.