Mideast quartet to meet in Washington

The next meeting of the Mideast Quartet is to be held in Washington on July 11th at the level of foreign ministers, a senior US official confirmed. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will participate in the meeting. The United States had hesitated for months over organizing the meeting before securing substantial progress towards a return to negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had previously indicated the talks may take place. The peace talks ground to a halt in September 2010 when Israel failed to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Since then, the Palestinians have refused to return to talks as long as Israel builds on land they want for a future state. They are planning to seek recognition of their state within the 1967 lines that preceded the Six-Day War when the UN General Assembly meets in September, despite the opposition of both Israel and the United States. France has indicated that it might recognize an independent Palestinian state if peace talks are not back on track by September. Germany, like the United States, is opposed to any unilateral steps and accepts the Israeli position that any progress must be made through negotiations. The European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States make up the Quartet on the Middle East.