The US, Cheney indicated, would support such action by diplomatic and military means. On no occasion however, did Cheney state explicitly that America would attack Iran. Nonetheless, Cheney’s veiled comments set up a wave of jitters in the region today, coming as they did on the heels of homeland defense and medical drills mounted by Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain to withstand Iranian missile attacks on their capitals and oil fields, or radioactive fallout from foreign strikes at Iranian nuclear sites.
 
The royal house took the opportunity to show the public that plans to protect the country for any contingency were in hand. As soon as Cheney took off yesterday, King Abdullah rushed the Saudi Shura Council into urgent session to bring anxieties out in the open and demonstrate that preparations had been made to defend the kingdom.
 
As for the US leaders’ talks in Israel today, military sources report that there is no doubt that the Iran issue dominates the conversations. This is apparent from his choice of interlocutors: prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak, chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi, Mossad director Meir Dagan and Military Intelligence-AMAN commander Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin. The question today is, will Israel take the bait?
 
Cheney also promised  that  the US Navy’s and Air Force presence in the Persian Gulf would be expanded in the coming weeks. The American Fifth Fleet’s command base in Bahrain would be augmented with additional aircraft carriers and warships.

The  Egyptian Visit in Washington Today

During the second half of April Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s will visit the White House when he will be the first Arab ruler to take leave of the US president in person. President Bush’s will visit to Cairo in May. These visits are scheduled to take place in the twilight of both their presidencies, depending on Cairo’s delivery of a security package for lawless Sinai, terror-ridden Gaza and Israel-Palestinian peace talks. Mubarak will be the first Arab ruler to take leave of the US president in person.
 
Seen from Cairo, Egyptian president’s American trip will also initiate international events marking his own impending farewell (probably soon after Bush’s successor is sworn in next January) from the presidential palace after 28 years’ occupancy. It is common knowledge that the baton will be passed to his son, Gemal (Jimmy) Mubarak, whose appointment will be ratified by popular referendum.
 
One issue discussed the past two days by Egyptian defense minister Gen. Hussein Tantawi in Washington, is that the security in and around Suez has deteriorated. Aware that al Qaeda cells are scattered through the towns on Suez shores, in fact US craft have standing orders to shoot any small boats coming too close after warning them to move off.
 
Gen. Hussein Tantawi therefore proposed marking the peninsula off into 10 squares. In each, an Egyptian military, police and intelligence team would be posted to crack down on local terrorist networks. Joint US-Egyptian naval and air forces would secure Sinai’s Suez, Red Sea and Mediterranean coastlines.
 
Furthermore American circles close to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, added today that:
With no breakthrough in sight in Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the US administration might be advised to review its negative attitude toward the Palestinian fundamentalist terrorists and, working through Egypt, seek an accommodation that would satisfy Israel.The difficulty here is that indirect US recognition of a terrorist group, a problematic world precedent, would be implicit in this arrangement.
 
According to the circle around Rice, the Israeli officials involved in the Cairo dialogue are dead set against any sort of recognition - but not averse to a long-term ceasefire and the partial lifting of the blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, so long as the arrangement is not formalized. In fact prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak regard an unwritten, unacknowledged truce with Hamas preferable to Israel’s reoccupation of the main part of the Gaza Strip to halt Palestinian attacks.
 
In fact if this arrangement where to be  confirmed, it would be the first time the United States or Israel had agreed to participate in a deal under fire with a terrorist group, without requiring the dismantlement of its infrastructure.
 
The Hamas imbroglio is complicated by Egypt’s local elections on April 8, when  the regime is contending with a threat by the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian armed wing, to sweep an election.
 
Mubarak had special committees set up to whittle down the 5,200 Brotherhood candidates to 483, so pre-empting an almost certain landslide. As a result around 1,000 disqualified election candidates have been thrown into jail.
 
Their leader, Muhammad Mahdi Akef however has warned that an explosion is imminent. Thus Cairo believes that one way to placate the Muslim Brotherhood might be to ease restraints on Hamas, which it needs to do anyway in the negotiations for an indirect deal with Israel. Earlier this week, Egypt released the last batch of Hamas gunmen rounded up in Sinai. More concessions to Hamas may be in store. If the Brotherhood refuses to be pacified, Mubarak may postpone the elections.