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The article focuses on the efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator John F. Kerry for nuclear talks with Iran, adapted from the article "Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle Over American Power," by Mark Landler.

WASHINGTON -- For much of her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been less an architect than an advocate for the Obama administration's Middle East policy. With the resumption of direct talks last week, she now has no choice but to plunge into the rough and tumble of peacemaking. Mrs. Clinton will be in the thick of the negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, when they meet on Sept. 14 in Egypt. Her role, several officials say, will be to take over from the administration's special envoy, George J. Mitchell, when the two sides run into serious obstacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to announce Friday that Israel and the Palestinians will return to direct negotiations for the first time in 20 months, delivering the Obama administration a small victory in its protracted effort to revive the Middle East peace process, two officials briefed on the situation said Thursday evening. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, have agreed to place a one-year time limit on the talks, these officials said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MOSCOW -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that proposals offered by the Israeli government to settle a diplomatic dispute with the United States were ''useful and productive,'' though it was not clear how close Israel had come to meeting American demands. Neither side has characterized the steps that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuoutlined in a call to Mrs. Clinton on Thursday night, a week after she called him with a rebuke and specific requests. But Mrs. Clinton's comments on Friday signaled that the United States was eager to get past the dispute, which erupted after Israel announced a housing plan for Jews in East Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON -- In a tense, 43-minute phone call on Friday morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel's plan for new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a ''deeply negative signal'' about Israeli-American relations, and not just because it spoiled a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Biden, in Israel this week to declare American support for its security, had already condemned the move as undermining the peace process. But Mrs. Clinton went a good deal further in her conversation with Mr. Netanyahu, saying it had harmed ''the bilateral relationship,'' according to the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With an inadvertent bit of shorthand, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton set off a buzz in diplomatic circles on Wednesday, and may have offered a glimpse into how the Obama administration hopes to revive the stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Answering a question at a news conference about how the talks might be revived, Mrs. Clinton said, ''Of course, we believe that the 1967 borders, with swaps, should be the focus of the negotiations over borders.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Winding up a Middle East tour, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated on Wednesday that while the Obama administration rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlement expansion, it nonetheless believes that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede a permanent freeze on such construction. Her arguments conflicted with Arab and Palestinian demands that all settlement activity be frozen as a precondition for resuming talks with Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Struggling to stem protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday reiterated that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel's compromise offer as ''unprecedented.'' Arab officials expressed alarm that the United States seemed to be easing pressure on Israel after Mrs. Clinton said in Jerusalem on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal of restrained settlement building was better than anything previous Israeli governments had offered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Obama administration reiterated emphatically on Wednesday that it viewed a complete freeze of construction in settlements on the West Bank as a critical step toward a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, ''He wants to see a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions.'' Talking to reporters after a meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, she said: ''That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for a New York Senate seat nine years ago, she labored to persuade skeptical Jewish voters of her support for Israel, after an incident in which she stood by as the wife of Yasir Arafat delivered an inflammatory attack on Israeli policies. Now, having secured her standing as a friend of Israel, Mrs. Clinton must show a new audience that she can also be a mediator in her next expected role as secretary of state, when her first challenge may well be the renewed violence in Gaza. Given Mrs. Clinton's once troubled history with Arab-Israeli issues, that could be a tricky task. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]