Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday won tempered Egyptian support in her quest to nudge Israelis and Palestinians closer together ahead of a West Asia peace conference to be held in November or December. Egypt, a key mediator between the Arabs and Israel, and other key Arab allies have expressed skepticism over the conference in past weeks, fearing it would be merely symbolic without making real progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A day earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit spoke of postponing it.But Gheit said his meeting with Rice on Tuesday “gives us a lot of trust and confidence” about American intentions for the conference. “We feel encouraged regarding what we heard from Rice and promised her that we would help and we would help the parties as well in order to achieve the objective,” he said.
