Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also asked Arab allies on Jan. 15 to help support the government in Iraq, on whose success much of Bush's plan to turn the war around will depend.

The three-way U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian meeting would be the first among the main parties thought necessary to draft any settlement in the six-decade-long dispute. It represents more direct involvement from the Bush administration, which has sometimes viewed Mideast peacemaking as a fool's errand.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 20, 2007
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