Middle East quartet tries to prevent violence upsurge in the region

At the meeting in Jordan on June 22nd, the quartet of international mediators /Russia, the USA, the European Union and the UN/ will try to prevent a new upsurge of violence in the Middle East.

"The objective of it is to co-ordinate positions and further practical steps to prevent "a new confrontational collapse" and encourage the sides to stick to "the road map", official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko stated in his RIA Novosti interview shortly before the meeting.

Yakovenko pointed out that "the current acute crisis around Palestinian territories and the generally unsettled Middle Eastern conflict caused grounded concern of the international community". Such a situation "constantly generates violence and hatred, including terrorist actions threatening the international stability", Yakovenko pointed out.

Yakovenko recalled that in order to overcome the long-standing Mideastern confrontation, the quartet of international mediators had developed a plan, the so-called road map, to break the dead-end in Israeli-Palestinian relations and gradually create an independent Palestinian state. This document envisages resumption of negotiations in the Syrian and Lebanese directions. "Accordingly, its realisation opens a way for a comprehensive settlement in the region," the diplomat stressed.

On April 30th, 2003 the road map was officially handed to the Palestinian and Israeli governments who agreed to meet their liabilities. "This programme has a compromising character and each party has its own remarks against it," the Russian Foreign Ministry representative stated. "However, today it is the only reasonable and realistic plan allowing to break the vicious circle of violence, normalise the situation and resume the negotiation process," he stressed.