Mideast Quartet ends talk without breakthrough

Updated: 2011-10-10 09:42

(Xinhua)

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Mideast Quartet ends talk without breakthrough

Jewish settlers shout as Israeli border police officers escort Palestinian farmers from the village of Awarta out of their olive grove, which is fenced in by the Jewish settlement of Itamar, near the West Bank city of Nablus October 9, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - The Middle East Quartet's meeting ended here on Sunday without any essential results.

Neither new resolution nor timetable urging Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks was reached on the one-day meeting, although European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described it as a "successful meeting."

The Quartet meeting, participated by special envoys from Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the EU, was designed to "agree an agenda and method of proceeding" in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation, according to their statement on September 23, the day when the Palestinians submitted the request for a full membership of the United Nations.

The Quartet have hoped the two sides to reach a final deal before the end of 2012.

"We discussed what to do next to encourage our Israeli and Palestinian partners to resume substantive negotiations as soon as possible. With that in mind we will be contacting the parties to invite them to meet in the coming days," Ashton said in a statement following the meeting.

She said the Quartet would keep in close contact with Quartet partners and colleagues in the region with view to meet and move things forward.