Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced Thursday that he would travel to Israel at the end of the month, after attending a NATO meeting in Europe.
Cheney said the trip to Israel had been planned a year ago but was first delayed when Israel’s national unity government collapsed last spring and later put off by the Persian Gulf War.
This would be Cheney’s first trip to Israel as secretary of defense, although he said he visited Israel a few times during his tenure as a Republican congressman from Wyoming.
Speaking at a news conference here prior to addressing the American Jewish Committee’s 85th annual meeting, Cheney said that America’s closer ties with the Arab nations as a result of cooperation during the Gulf war had not harmed the U.S. relationship with Israel.
“I don’t see why we have to adopt an either/or view toward relations with Arabs and Israel,” he said. He added that the strategic relationship between Israel and the United States remains “as strong as it’s ever been.”
“I don’t see anything that altered our fundamental relationship,” he said.
Commenting on Israel’s continuing settlement of the administered territories, Cheney reiterated the Bush administration’s view that such activity is an obstacle to the Arab-Israeli peace process.
“We’ve made it clear that we don’t think it advances the cause of resolving the conflict,” he said.
Cheney said he hopes that with the virtual elimination of Iraqi military might, which was a major security threat in the region, the Middle East peace process can be advanced.
“We’ll continue to pursue peace as actively as possible,” he said, referring to Secretary of State James Baker’s three recent trips to the Middle East.
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