RUSSIA: MEMBERS OF MIDDLE EAST QUARTET URGE ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS TO BUILD ON PROGRESS MADE ALREADY IF THEY ARE TO ACHIEVE PEACE

Record ID: 400526

  • Title: RUSSIA: MEMBERS OF MIDDLE EAST QUARTET URGE ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS TO BUILD ON PROGRESS MADE ALREADY IF THEY ARE TO ACHIEVE PEACE
  • Date: 9th May 2005
  • Summary: (W3) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 09, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WS: MIDDLE EAST QUARTET MADE UP OF RUSSIA, UNITED STATES, UNITED NATIONS AND EUROPEAN UNION ARRIVING TO BRIEF REPORTERS ON TALKS IN MOSCOW 0.12 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) KOFI ANNAN, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL SAYING: "We emphasise that this is a hopeful and promising moment for both Palestinians
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA1AY59J1T8C3GH6JF2MH5NNS6Z
  • Story Text: Member of Middle East quartet urges Israelis and
    Palestinians to build on progress made already if they are
    to achieve peace.


    Both sides in the Middle East conflict must, in the
    next few months, build on the momentum from Israel's
    withdrawal plans and Palestinian reforms if they are to
    achieve peace, international mediators said on Monday
    (May 9).

    Officials of the "quartet" -- the United Nations,
    European Union, United States and Russia -- met after a
    Moscow parade marking the sixtieth anniversary of the end
    of World War Two, in what Russia's foreign minister called
    a symbolic moment for Middle East peace efforts.

    A February ceasefire agreed between Israel and the
    Palestinians has raised hopes that sputtering efforts by
    the quartet to broker peace might finally bring fruit.

    Israel has pledged to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and
    part of the West Bank in the summer while the Palestinian
    Authority has held elections and promised reforms to its
    security forces.

    "We emphasise that this is a hopeful and promising
    moment for Palestinians and Israelis, they both deserve the
    full support of the international community," said UN
    Secretary General Kofi Annan, reading a statement to
    reporters.

    Annan said that the quartet urges both parties to take
    steps to fulfil their obligations under the Road Map,
    referring to a programme for peace adopted in 2003 that has
    largely been ignored amid widespread violence.

    As preliminary steps under the Road Map, Israel pledged
    to halt settlement building on occupied land and the
    Palestinians promised to halt militant attacks.

    The quartet welcomed steps from the two sides that
    suggested these conditions might begin to be fulfilled.

    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Let me
    just emphasise, many opportunities have been missed in the
    Middle East and we have a real opportunity before us in the
    next several months, to have a successful disengagement of
    Israel from the Gaza and the four West Bank territories. We
    then have a very strong possibility of the establishment of
    democratic, transparent institutions that can be the basis
    of a Palestinian state; of economic development in this
    region that can improve the lives and the hopes of the
    Palestinian people; and what you hear here is the
    commitment, not to miss the opportunity that is just in
    front of our very eyes," said Rice.

    Rice joined Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
    Lavrov and the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and
    External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner at the
    meeting.

    Lavrov said all countries involved in the Middle East
    should learn the lessons of World War Two, when an alliance
    achieved a great victory by standing together. He said it
    was symbolic that the meeting was taking place on May 9,
    the day marking victory and the end of World War Two.

    "Then (during World War Two) we were united against a
    common enemy; and today we all must unite against a new
    enemy, international terrorism," said Lavrov.
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