Middle East Peace Can’t Bank On Rice

Excerpt - As a well-respected academic and diplomat Rice is in a precarious position. She is President George W Bush's top gun in the Middle East, she calls the shots and she supplies all the back-up. What she says normally goes and it's fair to say that she's the one person who can make the two leaders listen to sense. They wouldn't even be thinking of meeting unless Rice had paid a visit - to remind Olmert that Bush wanted to see some progress and to give Abbas a cheque for $10 million with the promise of more to come, the money to be used to reform the security services… Full article at sundayherald by Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor