Word: summiter
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...That night, after Rice left the Ramallah meeting, Abbas and his aides debated whether he should boycott the following day's summit. In the end, Abbas decided to go. His aides say Abbas, as angry as he was, did not want to risk an open clash with the U.S. Secretary of State...
After the U.S., Israeli and Palestinian summit aimed at re-starting Middle East peace talks failed, a familiar litany of complaints followed: the Palestinians grumbled that the U.S. was too pro-Israel to act as an honest mediator, while the Israelis expressed frustration because there was nobody among the Palestinians capable of stopping terrorist attacks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the summit aimed at re-starting Middle East peace talks as "a big, big failure." But according to Abbas aides, the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert almost never took place...
...close Abbas aide tells TIME that the Palestinian leader nearly boycotted Monday's three-way summit after a stormy session with Rice the day before in Ramallah. Witnesses to their meeting say it soured when Rice accused Abbas of "retreating from previous commitments" by agreeing to share power with the militant Islamic group Hamas...
...Since the summit's failure, tensions have been running high. Palestinian extremists responded to the summit's meltdown by sending a suicide bomber on Tuesday into Tel Aviv, Israel's busiest city. The would-be bomber was caught, but police fear that other explosive-laden martyrs will follow now that the chance of peace between Arabs and Israelis is ebbing. Meanwhile, in Nablus, three American women doing aid work were kidnapped by a Palestinian militant who demanded a job and medical treatment after a shooting injury. The three workers were released unharmed several hours later...
...most positive outcome of the summit is that Rice persuaded Olmert and Abbas to keep talking. But unless the three try harder next time, the U.S.-sponsored Road Map for Peace will lead in circles, going nowhere...