October 03, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 20, 1428

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration was warned on Monday by former senior US diplomats that it is setting itself up for the failure of its Middle East peace summit by neglecting to lay the groundwork for a successful meeting of American, Israeli and Arab leaders.

The conference represents the Bush administration’s most serious attempt to engage in Middle East peacemaking after seven years of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The meeting as it stands now seems to be something of a gamble,” the former diplomats warn the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in a letter which was obtained by the London-based Guardian newspaper on Monday. “The chances of a perceived failure, even without a breakup, are profound.”

The rare critique of US foreign policy was unusual both for its attempt constructively to influence the administration and because of the seniority of the former officials involved.

They included Thomas Pickering, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs, Robert Pelletreau, a former assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, and Samuel Lewis, a former director of policy planning.

It was seen as a reflection of widespread frustration within an administration that resisted taking an active role in peacemaking for several years, and that now risks squandering its efforts because of poor planning. “This administration over the last six years has neglected this major issue ... It is only now, in the last year and a half of the administration, that I think they are realising there is an important role to play,” Pelletreau told the Guardian.

The writers urged the administration to reduce the burden of expectations on next month’s summit by arranging a series of such meetings.

The rationale behind that suggestion was to avoid a replay of the collapse of the Camp David summit during the waning months of the Clinton administration, which led to the September 2000 Palestinian uprising.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service