Spur peace talks

There is a fact that can not be ignored: of all the Mideast countries visited or to be visited by US top decision makers since the beginning this year, both Israel and the Palestinian autonomous region feature their successive visits.

Like what Bush and Rice did in their visits to the region to promote installed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the latest visit by Cheney is apparently to renew the Bush administration's effort to shore up talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Cheney's visit to Israel and the West Bank is to "reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East," and to seek assurances that "relevant parties ...uphold their obligations under the road map," Bush told reporters days before Cheney's departure for the Middle East.

However, it is not at all optimistic for the public to expect any important progress in this field as Cheney began his Mideast tour amid increasing conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The mood has deteriorated incredibly in the last six weeks since the president was there," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"From the outside it's very hard to see that Secretary Rice was able to even arrest the slide let alone get things moving forward. My guess is the vice president will be able to arrest the slide if not necessarily put things on track," local media quoted the Mideast expert as saying.

Get Iraq supported

As the 5th anniversary of US-led Iraq war is approaching, US officials have begun negotiating with their Iraqi counterparts over formal arrangements for a long-term relationship in the political, economic and security fields between the two sides.

In hopes of having Iraq's pro-US government got wide support in the Arab world, the United States has been expecting Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to demonstrate their full support to Iraq's new government by appointing an ambassador and opening an embassy in Baghdad.

"The United States can do a lot for Iraq, but we cannot provide Iraq with an anchor in the Arab world, a kind of legitimacy for the new Iraqi project that comes from being fully integrated in its neighborhood," said a US official who asked not to be identified.