Israel accepts Quartet call for talks
Israel accepted on Sunday a call by international mediators to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, who quickly reaffirmed their refusal to negotiate until settlement-building stops on land they seek for state.
“Israel welcomes the Quartet call for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions,” the statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
“Israel calls on the Palestinian Authority to do the same and to enter into direct negotiations without delay.”
The four mediators — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — responded to a Palestinian application for full membership at the UN on September 23 by urging both sides to resume talks within a month.
Israel and the United States oppose the unilateral bid launched by Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas after two decades of on-again, off-again negotiations failed to establish a Palestinian state.
Asked about Netanyahu’s acceptance of the Quartet’s initiative, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said “returning to negotiations requires Israel to commit to stopping settlement.”
Abu Rdainah said that Israel also must recognise the “1967 borders” lines that existed before its occupation of the West Bank in a Middle East war that year.
Citing security concerns, Netanyahu has balked at US President Barack Obama’s proposal to use those lines as the starting point for statehood negotiations with the Palestinians, who have yet to respond formally to the Quartet’s call.
