Middle East quartet of mediators discussed refreshing peace talks between Israel and Palestinian
On Tuesday, the Middle East quartet of mediators, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations debated vitalizing meaningful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to find a solution for the two-state.
The quartet stated in a statement after their gathering, that Israel and the Palestinians require refraining from unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve.
It seems that is the first time since September 2018 that envoys from the four mediators have gathered. On his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, last month, that he wanted that there would be a quartet gathering in the next weeks, after that there was a new president in the White House.
Indeed, the Palestinians seeks to have a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital, all territory captured by Israel in 1967. Under an unsuccessful peace suggestion by former US President Donald Trump, Washington would have recognized Jewish settlements in occupied territory as part of Israel.
Moreover, the new administration of President Joe Biden declared that it backs a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and would cancel many decisions made by Trump. It also said that it would continue to call other countries for normalizing relations with Israel; however, it affirmed that is not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
As widely seen is one of Trump’s few foreign policy achievements, Washington signed agreements late last year with four Arab states – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – to begin normalizing ties with Israel.
