Palestinian FM censures Middle East Quartet for 'inefficiency'
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has criticized the composition of the Middle East Quartet, calling for reform within the group which is involved in talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
“We need to revise the Quartet," al-Maliki was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying at a UN-organized meeting in support of talks between Palestinians and the Israeli regime.
He added that the Quartet has failed to attain “concrete results to which we could refer.”
Touching on mechanisms worked out for resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, al-Maliki said, “It has to be understood whether the existing mechanisms are sufficient to achieve a result or [whether] they should be changed and new ones developed and introduced.”
He also said the enlargement of the Quartet is one of proposals for its reform. The group is composed of Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations.
"The French proposal suggests that several other Arab and European countries should be included in the Quartet to stimulate its work,” said Maliki.
The Palestinian minister further questioned the effectiveness of the proposal for resuming the Quartet's work and noted that the group might need to “be fully reviewed and new mechanisms found.”
The last round of talks between Palestinians and Israelis collapsed in April 2014, a few months before the Tel Aviv regime launched an atrocious attack on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Over 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in the 50-day Israeli attack, which started in early July 2014 and ended in late August. More than 11,100 others, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were also injured.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks have been hampered by Tel Aviv’s continued settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian lands.
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.
MR/KA/GHN
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