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Rice's Turnabout on Mideast Peace Talks

[New York Times] Elisabeth Bumiller - At President Bush's first National Security Council meeting in January 2001, he announced that he did not want to be drawn into the shattered Middle East peace process, people at the meeting recalled, because he believed that former President Bill Clinton had pushed so hard for an Israeli-Palestinian accord that he made the situation worse. Seven years later, Condoleezza Rice, as secretary of state, has led the Bush administration to a startling turnaround and is now thrusting the U.S. as forcefully as Mr. Clinton once did into the role of mediator between the Israelis and Palestinians. Annapolis reflects her evolution from passive participant to activist diplomat who has been willing to break with Vice President Dick Cheney and other conservatives skeptical of an American diplomatic role in the Middle East. Rice's thinking on the Middle East changed for several reasons, her aides said. She has been under increasing pressure to get involved in the peace negotiations from European and Arab leaders whose support she needs for the campaign of diplomatic and economic pressures on Iran. She considers it equally important, her aides said, to shore up the moderate leadership of Abbas, who is facing a sharp internal challenge from the more militant Hamas.
2007-11-27 01:00:00
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