WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) – American Vice President Dick Cheney, embarking on a 10-day trip to the Middle East, will discuss with Arab allies how to bring about a peaceful resolution to dispute over Iran’s nuclear issue, a senior administration official said.

The last week resignation of Admiral William Fallon as U.S. commander in the region fed speculation among Arab nations that the U.S. policy toward Iran is turning more confrontational. Fallon once referred to tough White House rhetoric on Iran as “not helpful and not useful.”
David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, expects that Cheney “will seek to at least try to persuade jittery Arab allies that continuity rather than a sharp departure is the U.S. watchword.”
The senior administration official, who requested anonymity while talking with reporters, said that Cheney, 67, would discuss with Arab leaders how to peacefully bring Iran into compliance with United Nations resolutions on the country’s uranium enrichment program.
Those discussions won’t “tamp down speculation” that the U.S. is now taking a more bellicose position toward Iran, predicts James Carafano, a military historian at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, a research group with close ties to the Bush administration.
Iran’s enrichment program is solely for peaceful purposes. Iran’s nuclear activities are under watchful eyes of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
There has been no direct contact between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, except for talks in Baghdad on Iraqi security between their ambassadors or technical experts.