Word: envoys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
George Mitchell likes to say that any conflict can be resolved, and during a storied career, he's repeatedly put that mantra to the test. Mitchell, the former U.S. Senate majority leader whom President Barack Obama appointed special envoy to the Middle East on Jan. 22, has earned a reputation as a diplomat capable of untangling the world's knottiest disputes. Since leaving the U.S. Senate fifteen years ago, Mitchell has helped broker a peace agreement in war-torn Northern Ireland, spearheaded a Clinton Administration committee on Middle East peace and investigated steroid use in baseball. Forging a resolution...
...least the Obama administration is not going in blind. Last week Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton called Afghanistan a "narco state" whose government was "plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption." And former ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke, who will serve as Obama's envoy for Southwest Asia, said last year that the Afghan government "is weak; it is corrupt; it has a very thin leadership veneer." And it's not just the Americans. On Sunday NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wrote in the Washington Post that "the basic problem in Afghanistan is not too much...
...Israeli envoy Amos Gilad returned from Cairo on Thursday night to brief Olmert and his Defense and Foreign Ministers about Hamas' response to the Egyptian truce proposals. Israeli officials claim that Hamas may be willing to drop two previous demands: that Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza before Hamas stops firing its rockets into Israel and that Hamas control the Gaza border crossings with Israel and Egypt. These sources say Hamas has agreed that the Gaza crossings be manned by a force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Hamas rival supported by Israel and the U.S. So far, Olmert...
...host to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni). The Hamas source commented pessimistically, "We're 100% sure that Israel won't accept our demands, but let's see how far the Egyptians get with them." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a late-night meeting with his advisers to brief envoy Amos Gilad, who flies to Cairo Thursday for talks with the Egyptians. (See pictures of Israeli soldiers sweeping into Gaza...
Hamas sources say that the impasse between the Egyptians and Hamas was broken by Turkish envoy Ahmad Oglu who volunteered Turkish forces to be placed along the Egyptian-Gaza border to stop arms trafficking. Hamas has agreed to the Turkish offer, this source says. Before withdrawing troops and tanks, Israel wants a guarantee that the Egyptian border will be sealed off so that Hamas can no longer smuggle in Iranian-made rockets to shoot at Israeli cities. So far, Israel and Hamas have failed to agree on the length of the ceasefire proposed by the Egyptians. Israel wants...