As one American diplomat remarked, "It is as though all of northern Iraq has gotten up and walked."

But now, a French diplomat remarked the other day, it seems that the initiative's first tests came a little too soon.

A Western diplomat remarked, "The Soviets want to trade up without risking their traditional friendships."

An American diplomat remarked that "these people have simply had power politics bred out of them."

"I'm not sure that's a bad thing at all," a diplomat remarked.

As a Victorian diplomat remarked of Morocco, Spain is "a cold country with hot sun".

As one German diplomat remarked to me: "You Americans and French are both up a tree.

"We are just reading the newspapers like everyone else," an American diplomat in Saudi Arabia remarked.

Easy for 50 Years' "It was a terrible shock," one Western diplomat remarked.

It was a courteous gesture among African leaders, particularly among ideological foes, that would have been "unthinkable a week ago," an American diplomat remarked.