UNITED NATIONS – Envoys from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia are hoping to hold separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to try to revive peace talks, the U.N.’s Mideast coordinator said Thursday.

Robert Serry said the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators has proposed meetings with the two sides on all core issues blocking a peace settlement. They include borders of a Palestinian state, security arrangements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

“I hope very soon the Quartet envoys will be meeting separately with the parties — that is something new,” he told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council. “We are at the moment seeking confirmation from both sides that they are willing to meet the Quartet envoys next week in Brussels.”

Serry said the separate meetings would precede a meeting of Quartet leaders in mid-March, “probably in the margins of a meeting in Paris.”

He again warned the council that “the credibility of the international community including the Quartet” is at stake in 2011.

Serry said it is urgent that the Quartet respond and “engage the parties in serious talks, including on substance, and support them in finding ways back to the negotiation table.”

The United States has tried but failed to get the two sides back to face-to-face negotiations that would culminate in a peace settlement and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

 

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