BICOM

The Quartet representatives will meet today in Washington in another effort to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Quartet envoy Tony Blair will meet on the sidelines of the G-8 foreign ministers’ meeting.

Expectations for any significant progress are low. A short lived process of talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators under Jordanian auspices was broken off by the Palestinian side on 25 January, without results. The Palestinians have conditioned the renewal of talks on Israel’s agreement to halt settlement construction and accept the 1967 lines as a basis for negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has called on the Palestinians to return to talks without preconditions.

A Palestinian delegation led by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week. He is expected to present a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterating Palestinian demands.

According to State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, the Quartet meeting will focus on efforts to “support the parties and move them closer to dialogue and creating the context for dialogue between them.” Nuland added that the Quartet “will also be looking at how they can build on the work that was done by the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee when it met in Brussels last week, emphasising the need for robust international support for the Palestinian Authority and institution building.”