US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has tapped the experience of former presidents on mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as she prepared for a key Middle East conference, the State Department said Friday.
Rice, who hopes the international conference in November will set the basis for negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state, met with former president Jimmy Carter on Wednesday and spoke by telephone with Bill Clinton weeks earlier, said spokesman Sean McCormack.
During the summer Rice read a report from the State Department archives on previous US efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, McCormack said.
The chief US diplomat also regularly meets with her predecessors, Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and James Baker, said a senior US official who requested anonymity.
"She's trying to draw on the historical record and the experiences of others to see ... what she can glean and how that may be applicable to the current day," McCormack told reporters.
While Washington views the current situation as "qualitatively different" than past experiences, "you can take the lessons of history and apply them," he said.
"She has been, actually, looking back at the historical record of various efforts to bring together leaders on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side, to try to move forward the peace process," he said.
The conference is expected to be held next month near Washington in the US east coast town of Annapolis, Maryland.
