Quartet presses Israel over settlements, Gaza blockade
Mideast Quartet calls on Israel to freeze extension of settelment in West Bank, while voicing concern over Gaza blockade. Former British PM Blair says Hamas must first stop rocket attack into Jewish state
In a joint statement issued after talks between the four key powers in London, they also urged Arab states to make good on pledges to help the Palestinians. The Quartet called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported the Quartet called Israel to continue emergency and humanitarian assistance and provide essential services to Gaza without obstruction.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet's envoy, said the situation in Gaza was "terrible,” but added that before the blockade could be lifted, it was essential that rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory into Israel ceased.
Before the London talks, aid agencies had urged the Quartet to use the London meeting to press Israel to end its nine-month blockade of Gaza.
Pledges ought to be fulfilled
The four powers – the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union – also urged Arab donor states to follow through on commitments to the Palestinians made at a Paris conference in December.
"The Quartet encouraged the Arab states to fulfill both their political and financial roles in support of the Annapolis process," Ban said, citing the agreed statement.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before the talks that Arab "states that have resources ought to be looking not for how little they can do but how much they can do."
On Friday, she said: "I think there have been pledges that have been fulfilled but clearly when you make a pledge you ought to fulfill it. That is the point that I will be making to all states."
Rice was due to travel on from London to Jerusalem and the West Bank, to try to advance stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, ahead of a visit to the region by President George W. Bush later this month.
Bush, who said this week he remained hopeful of a Middle East peace deal before he leaves office in January, will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt from May 13 to 18.
Blair also voiced optimism that an agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible "faster than people think. The reason why I remain, in the end, not merely determined but also believe that we can achieve a breakthrough is that there is a focus now both on improving the Palestinian security capability and on getting economic and social development going," he said.
Hamas has insisted that, as part of any truce to end violence, Israel must lift the blockade it imposed after the Islamists seized power in June. Israel reportedly rejected a proposed truce on Thursday.
