The US Diplomatic Role.

Secretary Rice is moving on two diplomatic tracks. The first leads to a regional solution for Iraq. She will take a crucial step on May 3-4 when she meets foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbours at Sharm el-Shaikh. This follows a preliminary meeting in March in Baghdad which ended a US quarantine of Iran and Syria. As she prepared for the May 3-4 meeting, Rice gathered advice from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among others. Kissinger is said to have advised her to go in a "listening mode", rather than with a detailed US proposal for how the neighbours should co-operate. Reportedly Kissinger told her: "Just let it happen. Let it evolve".

Kissinger is said to have argued that at Sharm el-Shaikh, Rice should seek bilateral meetings -including closed sessions with the Iranian and Syrian delegates. The agenda would focus on three issues highlighted at the March meeting: borders, refugees and internal security. Her aim will be to test the proposition that none of Iraq's neighbours has an interest in seeing the country destroyed, though Syria and Iran are again allowing Neo-Salafis to move into Iraq.

At the same time, Rice is to defuse growing tensions between Turkey and Iraq's Kurds. She has been concerned that recent threats by Turkish and Kurdish officials could bring a wider crisis in northern Iraq if the situation was not checked (see ood4-IraqComplicationsApr23-07).

Kissinger is said to see a broader, three-pronged process of negotiations emerging on Iraq: The first is a political dialogue taking place inside Iraq, despite the Neo-Salafi campaign. The second is the regional process embodied by the May meeting in Egypt. The third is gathering a wider group of interested developing nations - including India, Indonesia and Pakistan - which could help stabilise Iraq as US military forces are gradually withdrawn.

Rice's second track is to ease the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She took a small step recently by meeting with Salam Fayyad, the finance minister of a Palestinian unity government dominated by the Iran-backed and Syria-influenced militant group Hamas. She appears hopeful that ways can be found to resume US financial aid to the Palestinians through Fayyad, in his role as a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), despite a formal ban on assistance to the Hamas-led government. Israel had argued against such contacts. But Rice decided she would meet with Palestinian ministers if their statements accepted Israel's right to exist in peace.

Rice may expand her contacts to other Palestinian officials who meet that criterion, including Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr and Tourism Minister Khulud Dueibess. This reflects Rice's decision that it is more important for the US to have influence within the Hamas-led government and the Palestinian community than to avoid any hint of indirect contact with the militant Islamic group.

With Rice's encouragement, Sunni Arab states recently agreed to establish a working group to present details of Saudi King Abdullah's 2002 peace plan to the Israelis. So far, the group includes only Jordan and Egypt, which have diplomatic relations with Israel. But there is hope the group will expand if negotiations over the Palestinian horizon gather momentum. Such an Arab mission could have a powerful effect on Israeli public opinion. Rice's past diplomatic efforts have been limited by the Bush administration's tendency to moralise foreign policy issues, and to refuse the very process of dialogue with adversaries who might resolve problems.

Discussions in Washington have focused on "regulatory" changes to allow international donor funds to be deposited in PLO accounts managed by Fayyad, a former World Bank official, as a way of meeting some of the dire needs of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank without violating the US ban on direct aid to a Hamas-led government. This is not only a humanitarian necessity; it is also a move that could presage negotiations with Abbas and other non-Hamas members of the elected government.