Netanyahu Attempts Last-minute Damage Control Against Quartet Report on Stalemate in Peace
Source: Haaretz
Senior officials say draft of report - expected to be critical of Israel's actions in West Bank - has been sent to Quartet foreign ministers for final approval.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making last-ditch diplomatic efforts to soften an impending report on the impasse in the peace process, to be released by the Middle East Quartet. The report is expected to harshly criticize Israeli policy in the West Bank.
Both senior Israeli officials and Western diplomats told Haaretz that a draft of the report has been completed and sent for review and approval to the foreign ministers of the Quartet’s members – the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia. The final version is expected to be published shortly.
The Quartet foreign ministers decided to draft the report at a meeting in Munich last February, spurred by the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank and the French peace initiative. A statement published after that meeting raised the possibility – for the first time – of cooperation between the Quartet and the UN Security Council. That sparked fears in Israel that the Quartet report was intended as a prelude to a more far-reaching move on the Israeli-Palestinian issue at the Security Council.
Netanyahu intends to either meet personally or speak by phone with the leaders of every Quartet member over the next few days, in an effort to influence the report, and especially its recommendations. On Tuesday, he discussed the report in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A senior Israeli official said the issue also arose during Netanyahu’s recent meeting with Putin.
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