Is Quartet making comeback?
The public declaration by US envoy to the UN Samantha Powers of an upcoming Quartet meeting might suggest a shift by the United States to reinvigorate the dormant international group.
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.
A look at the website of the Quartet’s representative, Tony Blair, shows that the last statement by the four major world parties was made Sept. 27, 2013, and contained a briefing by the United States on the direct talks. Since that date, the Quartet has been silent, except for protocol issues and resolving some problems around the movement of people and goods, especially the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the last entry on the site of the Quartet representative was made Dec. 10, 2014, and contained a statement by Blair on the death of Palestinian Minister Ziad Abu Ein during a nonviolent anti-settlement protest near Ramallah.
