President Bush is seeing signs of progress from the 10-day Middle East mission of Secretary of State Colin Powell and is weighing the possibility of convening a conference to achieve peace in the region. Powell, who arrived at Andrews Air Force Base a little after 2 a.m. Thursday, was due at the White House barely eight hours later for a meeting with Bush and other members of the president's national security team to report on his trip. Despite intense efforts, Powell was unable to get the Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire he had sought. Bush wants to be sure the idea of a Middle East peace conference makes sense before embracing it, a senior administration official said.
Got that out of the way. Now Sharon can handle his end of it for awhile. Yasser's never going to move and the problem is going to be how to get anything done around him. |