Paula's Farewell Trip
I interviewed Paula Dobriansky earlier today, when she was visiting Stormont during a farewell tour of Northern Ireland. She steps down as US Special Envoy later this month when George Bush leaves office.
Ms Dobriansky was more low key than some of her predecessors, like George Mitchell, Richard Haass and Mitchell Reiss. Perhaps that was down to the relative progress that we had made here in contrast to the other envoys' terms.
She was a key player in last year's US Investment Conference. So I wondered whether the credit crunch had undone all the work she had been trying to achieve. She insisted that despite the challenging times, Northern Ireland had a lot of assets which outside investors would remain interested in.
Given the bloodshed in Gaza, I wanted to know if she thought Northern Ireland had any lessons to teach people in the Middle East. Should Israel negotiate with Hamas? the Envoy said she believed all sides wanted a ceasefire and that dialogue was the best way forward, adding that the NI experience had "great applicability".
So far as Barack Obama's incoming administration is concerned, Ms Dobriansky expresses confidence that a strong commitment to Northern Ireland will continue. Hillary Clinton is due to have confirmation hearings at Congress early next week before taking up her new job as Secretary of State. It will be interesting to see if anyone raises Northern Ireland during the discussion.
.
I'm 
Comments