So rebel leaders gathered this week in Eritrea, under the watch of that country's government. In Eritrea, Darfuri rebels can meet, chat, visit coffee shops, and watch cable television. Of note was that the reporting out of the rebel force get-together that implied that the upcoming peace talks in Libya are destined for failure. And frankly, after the killings as Haskanita, it doesn't seem like the prospects for reaching any meaningful peace accord are very good.

But interesting to me is the question of why the rebels would be meeting in teeny weeny Eritrea. I mean, it's a country no bigger than Tennessee. It seems, though, that Eritrea has ambitions of playing a dominent role in northeast Africa:

Eritrea is a little country with big ambitions. Since its independence in 1993, it has projected an aggressive foreign policy, shaping events in the Horn of Africa, though it has only five million people and is one of the poorest countries on earth.

In the past few months, Eritrea has opened its doors to rebel commanders from its neighbors, especially Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, which is part of the reason American officials are alarmed. The State Department says Eritrea has been shipping arms to Islamist fighters in Somalia, an allegation that the Eritrean government denies. At the same time, American diplomats have been quietly working with the Eritreans to push Darfur's ever expanding galaxy of rebel groups to peace talks scheduled for the end of October in Libya.

The Eritreans have a decent track record, American officials say, when it comes to Sudan. Last year, the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki, brokered a peace deal between the Sudanese government and rebels in a separate conflict in eastern Sudan that had ground on for 15 years and that cost thousands of lives.

African Union officials said Eritrea wields even more influence in Darfur, because of its longstanding contacts with the rebel groups there.

The Eritreans "have control over some of these movements," said Sam Ibok, a senior adviser of the African Union. "And the Eritreans have played a constructive role."