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Source: http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=10816
Haggling Over an Unwoven Carpet
[Asharq Alawsat-UK] Amir Taheri - Despite widely expressed misgivings inside and outside the Bush administration, U.S. Secretary of State Rice appears determined to go ahead with her plan to host a conference on Middle East peace later this month at Annapolis. Dennis Ross, the veteran U.S. peace-broker in the Middle East, believes that Rice's goal may be modest: "The Secretary believes that such a 'political horizon' will benefit President Mahmoud Abbas in his competition with Hamas. Hamas may control Gaza today, but Rice is betting that if Abbas can show that he offers a pathway to achieving Palestinian national aspirations and Hamas offers only failure, Palestinians will eventually reject Hamas." Yet whatever Abbas might be able to secure would still look paltry to those Hamas supporters who want everything and more. A complicating factor is the growing perception within the region that the U.S., plagued by internal divisions, is losing its traditional position of power and influence in the Middle East. Both the Islamic Republic in Tehran and the Baathist elite in Damascus are determined to force the Bush administration or its successor into a humiliating retreat from the region. Today, even the offer to return the Golan Heights to Syria is unlikely to persuade the Syrian leaders to sign a formal peace treaty with Israel. The reason is that they have attached their wagon to that of the Islamic Republic on a journey towards what Tehran believes would lead to a reshaping of the global order.