BICOM

Representatives of the Quartet (the United Nations, European Union, the United States and Russia) met in Brussels over the weekend. On Sunday, it was announced that the Quartet is to invite Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days to re-commence direct talks, which have been frozen since September 2010. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who hosted the weekend’s meeting, said “We will be contacting the parties to invite them to meet in the coming days. I believe we have made good progress and will keep in close contact with Quartet partners and colleagues in the region with view to meet and move things forward.” Following the meeting, Mideast envoy Tony Blair said “Today’s meeting showed the Quartet’s commitment to the timetable for talks
set out in our September statement…We look forward to meeting with the
parties shortly.”

The Quartet’s plan calls for an immediate return to negotiations without preconditions, a three-month window to agree on security plans, ‘significant progress’ within six months and a peace deal by 2012. The plan does not call for a settlement freeze, but says that both sides should avoid ‘provocative actions.’ Israel announced on 2 October that it accepted the proposal. The Palestinian Authority has not released any official statement on the proposal. Though it was reported that the PA was disappointed by the absence of any clear terms of reference for negotiations.