Appetite for peace unsatisfied
Quartet fails to kickstart peace talks
PEACE was on the menu at a special State Department dinner hosted by Hillary Clinton in Washington this week, but while the food may have been first rate, the meal was ultimately unfulfilling.
The US Secretary of State’s guests spent more than two hours discussing ways to kickstart talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but progress eluded them.
Among those at the meal were key representatives of the Quartet, including Middle East envoy Tony Blair, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Issues under discussion were to include formulating an official Quartet response to the Palestinian Authority’s expected push for statehood at the UN in September.
But despite the lengthy talks, no statement was produced after the meal, with a spokesperson for the US Government admitting, “There are still gaps that are impeding progress. Realistically … more work needs to be done to close those gaps.”
Israeli officials blamed Palestinian intransigence for the Quartet’s failure to produce a statement, saying the Palestinian Authority refused to cede to a Quartet demand to withdraw their plan.
On Tuesday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed that they planned to push ahead with a unilateral declaration of
statehood, insisting, “We are determined to appeal to the UN in September if the attempts at renewing negotiations with Israel fail.”
Ahead of the Washington dinner, the family of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit wrote to the Quartet, decrying his captivity as a war crime and insisting that unless he was released progress in “other issues standing between Israel and the Palestinians” could not be achieved.
ZEDDY LAWRENCE
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