White House Plays Down Mideast Meeting, Says It Is Not `a Big Peace Conference'

I wonder who told the blivet where to go when he announced this 'peace conference'?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/07/white_house_downplays_mideast.php

White House downplays Mideast meeting

White House Plays Down Mideast Meeting, Says It Is Not `a Big Peace Conference'

TERENCE HUNT
AP News

Jul 17, 2007 15:16 EDT

The White House said Tuesday the international meeting on the Middle East proposed by President Bush should not be viewed as "a big peace conference" and it's too early to say where or when it will be.

Spokesman Tony Snow at first described the meeting as an international conference, but several hours later he backed away from that portrayal as being too ambitious.

After many years of disappointments and setbacks in the search for peace in the Middle East, the administration appears intent on preventing expectations from rising too high. Bush has avoided direct engagement in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians for several years, and he has been reluctant to ask hard compromises of close ally Israel.

"This is a meeting," Snow said. "I think a lot of people are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference. It's not."

Announcing the meeting Monday, Bush said it would be chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and attended by envoys from Israel, the Palestinians and Arab nations. He framed the meeting in the context that "the world can do more to build the conditions for peace."

Bush said the participants would "look for innovation and effective ways to support further reform" among the Palestinians and provide diplomatic support toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Asked who would be in charge of the international meeting, Snow said, "It's not anybody in charge. What it is is a gathering of people who are interested. You're going to have parties in the region. You're also going to have (former Prime Minister Tony Blair) as the Quartet representative."

With less than 1 1/2 years remaining in his presidency, Bush has little time to achieve a significant foreign policy victory in the Middle East. His record has been darkened by the unpopular war in Iraq, now in its fifth year, that has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 members of the U.S. military and contributed to Bush's sagging approval ratings.

Source: AP News

Any meeting chaired by condi clearly does not have peace as one of it's agenda items.

Well, OF COURSE it's not a peace conference, Tony! Everybody plus the whole wide world knows that Smirky and Dick don't do peace! They are more the "break it to smithereens and giggle about it" type.