Key Players

Mahmoud Abbas (or Abu Mazen)

Mahmoud Abbas -- also known as Abu Mazen -- claimed victory in the Palestinian elections of January 2005 to replace the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who died in November 2004. Abbas was Arafat's chief lieutenant and is secretary-general of the PLO's executive committee. A veteran of peace negotiations, he was one of the key players in the secret talks that led to the 1993 Oslo accords and is the former PLO ambassador to Moscow. Abbas met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington in 2001 while he was in the United States for medical treatment. In March 2003, he reluctantly agreed to become the first Palestinian prime minister but quit after four months in office, accusing Arafat of undermining his authority by refusing to give him control of the Palestinian Authority's security organizations. Abbas was born in 1935 in the village of Saffed.

Abdullah II
King of Jordan

Abdullah II became king of Jordan in February 1999 after the death of his father, King Hussein, who ruled the country for 47 years. Hussein forged a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Despite Jordan's good relationship with Israel, Abdullah must deal with pressure from a citizenry that is 70 percent Palestinian.

Abdullah has urged that Jerusalem be declared an "open city" where West Jerusalem would become the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of the future Palestinian state. Apparently following the footsteps of his father, Abdullah also has played the role of mediator on other matters in the region, working behind the scenes to try to restart talks between Israel and Syria.

Bashar Assad
Syrian president

British-educated ophthalmologist Bashar Assad assumed the leadership of Syria with the death of his father, President Hafez Assad, in June 2000. Hafez Assad ruled for 30 years by tyranny; his son enters the political arena with no firm power base. Bashar Assad also has been handed a stagnant economy and meager infrastructure.

It is unclear if Bashar Assad will continue his father's uncompromising line in peace negotiations with Israel, or adopt a more pragmatic approach to the long-running border disputes between the two countries.

Assad has been vocal, however, in his support for the Palestinians and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, pledging to coordinate peace efforts with the Palestinians.

William Burns
U.S. assistant secretary of state

Washington's new envoy to the Mideast peace process, William Burns, had served as ambassador to Jordan since 1998 after beginning his diplomatic career there 16 years earlier. President George W. Bush has nominated Burns as assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, although his nomination is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

At a confirmation hearing before the Senate, Burns advocated a strong U.S. role in the push toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Because of his long service in Jordan and close relations with King Abdullah II, he is regarded as sensitive to Arab positions among Arabs who have often complained that the United States shows a marked bias toward Israel.

George W. Bush
U.S. president

George W. Bush, the former Texas governor and son of former President George Bush, succeeded Bill Clinton as president of the United States on January 20, 2001 -- in the midst of increasing violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

Bush initially favored a less active role in Mideast affairs for the United States than that of his predecessor, but he has shifted his position somewhat following the release of a report from former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell's investigative committee that urged quick implementation of several proposals aimed at ending the violence.

Bush had spoken with the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, urging both men to do whatever is necessary to stop the violence, but he has so far allowed Secretary of State Colin Powell to take the lead on the issues.

Bill Clinton
Former U.S. president

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton stepped up efforts in the final months of his second term to achieve a breakthrough agreement between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Despite going to great lengths, Clinton failed to bring the two sides to agreement before he left office January 20 and was succeeded by President George W. Bush.

In October 1998, Clinton played host to a summit in Wye Mills, Maryland, that resulted in an agreement between Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Fully implementing the terms of the Wye accords -- including a release of Palestinian prisoners and an Israeli troop withdrawal from Palestinian territory in exchange for better security for Israel -- proved more difficult.

Clinton did manage some powerful symbolic gestures, however, such as paying a historic visit in December 1998 to the Palestinian self-ruled territory of Gaza -- the first by an American president.

Hosni Mubarak
Egyptian president

Long an important patron of the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, Mubarak was also quick to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak after he won office in May 1999.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving under Presidents George Bush -- father of current President George W. Bush -- and Bill Clinton. In that capacity, he oversaw Operation Desert Storm and the victory over Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Previously, Powell served as assistant to the president for National Security Affairs under the senior Bush and President Ronald Reagan.

As the top U.S. diplomat, Powell was one of the point persons for U.S. policy on the Middle East and he was regarded as a moderate in the Bush administration. In November 2004, after Bush was re-elected, Powell announced that he would leave the administration. Bush has nominated National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to replace him.

Ariel Sharon won a landslide victory over Ehud Barak in a special election for prime minister in February 2001. But his win also came with the lowest Israeli voter turnout in recent history -- 62 percent in a nation that regularly brings out 80 percent of its registered voters.

Sharon, a former general, won election by promising not to negotiate for peace with the Palestinians without a guarantee of Israel's security -- a stance popular with many Israelis but troublesome to others who believe Israel must compromise to reach an accord.

The Palestinians are especially distrustful since an official Israeli inquiry found Sharon -- who, as minister of defense, orchestrated Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon -- indirectly responsible for the massacre of several hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside of Beirut, Lebanon, at the hands of Christian militiamen allied with Israel.

The Palestinians also blamed Sharon for the most recent violence, claiming that his visit to a disputed Jerusalem site on September 28, 2000, endangered the push for peace. Sharon said he went to the site -- known as the Temple Mount by Jews and Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims -- with a message of peace. He said the violence was a premeditated campaign orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority.

Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, the new United States envoy to the Middle East, is trying to broker a cease-fire between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The four-star general, who retired in 2000 after serving as commander of the U.S. Central Command, was the leader of Operation Desert Fox, the 1998 air campaign aimed at forcing Iraq to comply with United Nations weapons inspectors.

Zinni, a Purple Heart recipient who served in Vietnam, also supervised the 1995 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia and the military reprisal following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa.

His diplomatic experience includes work with Ethiopia and Eritrea to resolve a border dispute.

SOURCE: CNN