UN, EU, US, Russia to meet over Israel-Palestine conflict

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the meeting of the so-called “Quartet” of Middle East mediators would be held on January 26 in the Belgian capital, Brussels, with the aim of reviving the stalled talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
 
The announcement comes weeks after the UN Security Council rejected a Palestinian-backed resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by 2017 and stipulated the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem).
 
On Thursday, UN Assistant Secretary-General Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen called on Israel to release some $130 million in tax collections it withheld after the Palestinian government recently decided to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
 
Last week, Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, said Palestinians were ready to negotiate “through an international conference or a collective process” instead of US-mediated direct talks with Tel Aviv, which have failed so far.
 
The Israeli-Palestinian talks have been hampered by Israel’s continued settlement activities in occupied Palestinian land.
 
In 2012, Palestine was acknowledged by the UN as a non-member observer state. Following the move, several parliaments of the European countries also adopted resolutions recognizing Palestinian statehood in principle.
 
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.