Word: diplomatic
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...Tony Blair takes his leave of 10 Downing Street and mulls his likely appointment as the new Pasha of Middle East Peace, I'd like to pass on to him an old Jewish tale that I heard from a western diplomat who spent a frustrating year dealing with the Israelis and Palestinians. It's the story of the Baron...
...This shortsightedness applies today to the Israelis, says the diplomat. "There is no policy. The idea is to hold on as long as possible against Palestinian demands," he says. Meanwhile, the Palestinians, especially the extremists among them, cling to the dream of winning back all the land up to the Mediterranean shores, even if, in their hearts, they know it's impossible. The moral of this story: As Middle East envoy, Blair will find Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are sadly lacking in vision and pragmatism. Everyone is waiting for the Baron...
...perpetually frosty state of relations between North Korea and the U.S. has meant that Washington's diplomats don't rack up many frequent-flyer miles traveling to the isolated capital of Pyongyang. Prior to last week, the last time a senior American diplomat visited was October 2002, and then only to confront the North with secret intelligence about its nuclear-weapons program. But on June 21, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S.'s lead negotiator in the six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nukes, showed up in Pyongyang unexpectedly, and this time...
...accused the North of conducting a secret program to enrich uranium for bombs. The level of mistrust on both sides is deep and abiding. "It's never a straight line from point A to point B, no matter what [the agreement] the North has signed might say," acknowledges one diplomat involved in the six-party talks. "You obviously hope for the best, but you're always on your guard, and you just keep working it." Hill himself acknowledged the most obvious potential deal breaker is the alleged uranium-enrichment program. The U.S. claims Pyongyang admitted to such a program when...
...Arab diplomats say that besides warning Hamas, their aim at the summit is to lobby Olmert to provide help Abbas in the short term by releasing Palestinian money and easing Israeli security in Fatah-controlled areas, and in the long term by moving toward acceptance of the 2002 peace initiative recently relaunched by the Arab League. Meanwhile, they say, once passions have cooled down, their next move is to encourage Hamas and Fatah to restore their governing partnership. "We will try everything," an Arab diplomat explains. "None of us agrees with Hamas. But they are a political fact that...