Mr. Clancy didn't offer a schedule for the talks, or a targeted date for their conclusion.
The bad news is that North Korea still refuses to agree on an agenda for the talks.
And a short deadline for the talks imposes a desirable focus and urgency that a long suspension would destroy.
But Mr Netanyahu's attitude and actions have made relations too dire for the talks to advance beyond a ceremonial opening.
From all appearances, then, the prospects for the talks now look bleak.
The choice of Turkmenistan's capital as the meeting-place for the talks suggests that thought had been given to the finding of neutral ground.
In what appeared to be preparation for the talks, she met a group of Sinn Fein officials, led by Mr Adams, on August 6th.
South Korea's foreign ministry also welcomed the agreement and said faithful implementation of the steps by North Korea would smooth the way for the talks.
Is she carrying any message from the President for the talks?
Hamas has been quiescent, waiting happily for the talks to founder.
Meanwhile on Friday, the UDP chairman John White said the disturbances on the Shankill showed the urgent need for the talks between his party and the PUP.
He was allowed out for the talks, and the Sierra Leonean government has indicated that it will annul the death sentence but only if the peace talks succeed.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused them as "behaving like capricious little children" for failing to agree on a location for the talks, which had been due to take place this month.
Although the new round is to have as its hallmark the admirable goal of lowering the barriers to developing countries' exports, support for the talks outside the rich countries is mixed.
ECONOMIST: This year is too soon for a new round of global trade talks
So Mr Meshal is waiting for the talks to fail, hoping for a groundswell of diplomatic calls for Hamas to be part of future negotiations, even if it refuses to recognise Israel first.
On a recent visit to the United Arab Emirates, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had agreed to a request from Washington for the talks in order to help the Iraqi people and government.
In his meetings on Monday, President Clinton urged the two leaders to instead concentrate on the process for moving the talks forward.
Mr Barak, the leader of the Labor Party, in effect acts as foreign minister for the peace talks while the man who holds the title, Avigdor Lieberman, has threatened to quit the government if the prime minister gives too much ground.
Mr Assad said his country was "in the process of building foundations for the peace talks" and would need help from the US and others for direct negotiations to take place.
One of the reasons cited by the prime minister for halting the talks was that he felt other bills were being delayed and potentially endangered by efforts to pass Leveson-related legislation.
Rising tension across the Atlantic bodes ill for getting the talks restarted.
Tehran's choice to pick Baghdad as the next venue for the May talks reveals a final goal: to unnerve the world by reminding it that only a decade ago Iraq was invaded on charges of possessing weapons of mass destruction.
"There can be talks for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region in the future, but no talks for the denuclearization of the peninsula, " the Foreign Ministry said in a memorandum carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
They deny trying to grab the attention of the Obama administration but they're clearly trying to improve their bargaining position for whenever the talks resume.
The jailing in the US on 28 January of Ricardo Palmera, known as Simon Trinidad, further complicates the panorama for the guerrillas and the chances for peace talks.
The prospects for successful talks with the FARC look better than ever before.
ECONOMIST: This time negotiations might eventually bring peace
Colombian government negotiators arrived in Cuba late on Sunday for the peace talks.
The plans for talks between the parties follow calls by Prime Minister Tony Blair last week for the IRA to disband.
President Karzai has spoken out about the need for talks with the Taliban but he is also known to be suspicious about Britain's intentions.
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