BICOM

The Quartet is set to meet today at the UN to seek new ways to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process. The Quartet – comprising the US, EU, Russia and UN – put forward a framework for the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian talks last September, but a series of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman ended at the end of January with the Palestinians refusing to continue. According to a Reuters report, Russia initiated today’s meeting.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet at the UN ahead of a special Security Council session on the Arab Spring. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Blair, will participate via video link.

At the last Amman meeting Israel presented initial outline proposals for final status border arrangements, and called for a continuation of talks. The Palestinians refused to continue without an Israeli freeze on settlement construction and Israeli acceptance of negotiations on the basis  of pre-1967 lines. They also demanded the releases of some Fatah prisoners serving long sentences as part of confidence building measures. Israel wants to continue talks without preconditions, but demands that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not continue faltering reconciliation talks with Hamas.