Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
According to James Wolfensohn, the major blame for the failure of his Middle East mission lies with him. "I feel that if anything, I was stupid for not reading the small print," he admits. "I was never given the mandate to negotiate the peace." …
"My worry for Tony Blair is that if you read the mandate he has - it’s exactly the same as mine. It talks about helping both sides, helping the Palestinians, but there’s nothing there about negotiating peace. I would only hope that there’s a greater mandate given to him…[His chances are] better than mine were. He is closer to George Bush. He was prime minister. I do not believe there’s much time. I think it is difficult. But we’re fortunate to have somebody with experience." Access the full article>>