Quartet fails to make progress

The Quartet Committee concluded the advancing of the settlement process in the Middle East in a long meeting on Monday, but did not announce any progress towards the revival of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. An official from the White House confirmed that the meeting called for the Israelis and Palestinians to return to direct negotiations without preconditions. The Quartet, which includes the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations, concluded a dinner in Washington, which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, without issuing a statement. The Quartet wants to find a way to resume talks, while avoiding the diplomatic showdown that is expected in the United Nations in September, when the Palestinians will demand wider international recognition of the Palestinian state. After the meeting, a senior official from President Obama's government told reporters: "There are still cracks impeding any progress. A realistic perspective is that greater efforts should be made to close up these crcks." The official refused to continue talking about the nature of these "cracks", but said that the Quartet understands "that there is an urgent need to invite both sides to overcome the current obstacles, and to find a way to resume direct negotiations without delay or preconditions." The U.S. Secretary of the State, Hilary Clinton, hosted the dinner meeting, which was attended by the foreign policy coordinator of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Key issues discussed were the conflict on the borders, the security and future of Jerusalem, the Jewish settlements on land occupied by "Israel" in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, and the fate of the Palestinian refugees.