DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned Monday that "American disengagement" in the Middle East will benefit only Iran and Russia, indirectly criticizing President Donald Trump's pledges to pull forces out of the region.
While stressing that he's no longer in government, Cheney's comments in Dubai cut to the core of several policies taken by Trump, including the sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria.
The former vice president mentioned Trump by name only once in praising him for pulling out the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. But Cheney's backing of a muscular military response in the Middle East starkly contrasts Trump's promises to pull America from what he calls the region's "blood-stained sands."
Cheney said that, as well as other challenges from extremist groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, show "inaction can carry even greater risk than action."
On Iran, Cheney alleged that "the mullahs in Tehran want most of all to acquire nuclear weapons." However, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran stopped any organized nuclear weapons research in 2003 and Tehran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, even as it begins breaking limits of the deal.
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Cheney also called NATO "the most-formidable alliance in history."
"This post-war system has been so fundamental that it has hardly mattered year to year which political parties were in power," the vice president added, leaving unmentioned Trump's criticism of the alliance.
Cheney's visit marks one of many by former Western officials drawn to the Emirates for speaking fees at any number of panels and events held in the federation of seven sheikhdoms home to the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai.
While praised as "Little Sparta" by former Defense Secretary James Mattis, the UAE also has drawn increased scrutiny in Washington as Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan found himself named in former special counsel Robert Mueller's report. The Emirates' involvement in the yearslong Saudi-led war in Yemen also drew criticism, though Abu Dhabi has begun withdrawing troops from the campaign in recent months.
A Section on 12/10/2019