The statement was made Jan. 15 by US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power in New York. The setting was the UN Security Council’s monthly debate on the Middle East, the scene of a failed attempt to set an end date to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The justification, as expressed by Power, was to “urge both parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid steps that threaten to push Israeli-Palestinian relations into a cycle of further escalation."
Powers’ declaration revealed that representatives of the long dormant international Quartet were to meet in Brussels on Jan. 26. The Quartet was established in Washington in 2002 and is made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. It has been in hibernation ever since the beginning of the US-sponsored direct peace talks in July 2013.