United Arab Emirates/Somalia - Dr. Rice should first stop her exhausted sound bites and second, engage in quiet diplomacy instead, keeping her agenda for the region to herself until she sits down at the negotiating table.
The Secretary's surprise visit to Beirut and her meeting with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was a masterful act of diplomacy. Dr. Rice showed the Bush administration's support for Lebanon but her statement on the "New Middle East" has taken the Arab psyche back sixty years to when the British promised freedom to Arab states under the Ottoman Empire. These Arab states were then carved up and given to European powers.
Political pragmatism dictates that Dr. Rice do her business in utter silence unless she wants to enlarge the mob of demonstrators lifting images of the Iranian President on the streets of Cairo, Amman and Riyad.
Dr. Rice should also engage Syria as an Arab state that has a big stake in anything that takes place in Lebanon and a party that can wield a great influence on Hezbollah. Bringing Syria from the cold will also strengthen the emerging Arab doves bloc, while contributing positively to the situation in Iraq. But on top of all Dr. Rice should realize that no solution can prevail until the military action stops.
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