Mideast Quartet to Discuss Boosting Israeli-Palestinian Talks
VOA News 21 September 2010
The international Quartet of Mideast peace mediators meets in New York Tuesday to discuss ways of encouraging recently-launched Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and their Russian and U.N. counterparts are due to hold talks on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.
Ashton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel Monday to extend a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction that expires Sunday.
Palestinians claim the Israeli-occupied West Bank for a future state and say they will drop out of talks with Israel if settlement building resumes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said he has no plan to extend the moratorium, but intends to limit the scope of future construction. Clinton has said a limited extension of the 10-month moratorium would not undermine the peace talks if both sides agree to it.
Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot told the Associated Press that his government will not show flexibility on what it considers to be illegal settlement building by Israel.
Pro-settler members of Mr. Netanyahu's nationalist coalition government oppose any extension of the moratorium, which Israel has described as a one-time gesture to help revive peace talks.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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