[Los Angeles Times] Jeffrey Fleishman - Arab nations, including Washington's closest allies, are criticizing the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in November as a miscalculated photo op by a Bush administration desperate to repair its image in the Middle East. "This is not an effort to save the Palestinians, it's an attempt to prop up the administration's very low standing in the Arab world," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Randa Habib, a writer and political analyst in Jordan, said the Arab capitals and Washington appear to be speaking to each other from parallel realities. Rice is shuttling through the region to draw support for a meeting when many of those she is visiting would prefer to be taken off the list. "I think the regimes want to convince Rice, at least as things stand now, that this is not the right time for a peace conference," Habib said.
2007-10-15 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive