US state secretary to meet Erekat next week

Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat is due to travel to Washington for a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week in efforts to revive the peace process, the US State Department said in a statement. The meeting aims to encourage Israel and the Palestinians "to build on the exchange of letters and continue to take the next step toward the table," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We're trying to improve the atmosphere so that we can make progress and get them back to the table," she added. On Thursday, Erekat called on the Mideast Quartet to take a more active role with concrete steps, speaking ahead of a Quartet meeting Friday. "The Quartet has not taken any concrete measure to stop this alarming trend (of settlement activity), which the international community unanimously agrees now seriously threatens the prospects of the two-state solution," the Palestinian negotiator said, according to the Palestinian news agency (Ma'an). Calling for common terms of reference to be established, Erekat continued, "Any Quartet calls for a resumption of negotiation in the absence of such basic requirements will b counterproductive and only lead to a meaningless process that is incapable of bringing about peace." Earlier this week, Clinton phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed with him ways of resuming the peace talks with Israel. Clinton also discussed the issue with Jordanian Prime Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.