Mideast Quartet to Meet Sunday in Hopes of Restarting Talks Between Israel, Palestine

Envoys from the Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- are slated to meet in Brussels on Sunday in an effort to revive stalled peace-talks between officials in Jeruslaem and Ramallah.

Israel National News reports:

The United States will be represented by David Hale, US special envoy for Middle East peace, who will also hold meetings in Berlin, Paris and London, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at her daily briefing on Wednesday.

Asked if the envoys would discuss aid dollars for the PA in addition to restarting talks, Nulad said diplomats were expected "to discuss the full range of issues in front of them".

The Quartet reportedly called for the talks with a view to reaching some sort of deal or compromise by the end of 2012.

But while Israel has accepted the Quartet's proposal without preconditions, officials in Ramallah have rejected the proposal saying it is "too vague to be useful." The PA has thus far not even offered their own preconditions for talks.

Direct talks have been stalled for two years despite a 10-month building freeze in 'disputed territories' captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War by Israel that had been intended to bring PA officials back to the negotiating table.

Instead, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas imposed additional preconditions for negotiations and, when the freeze expired, demanded another before launching his unilateral drive for statehood recognition at the United Nations outside the bilateral framework of the Olso Accords.

In September Abbas submitted a bid for Palestinian statehood to the U.N  despite vows from the United States that it would oppose the move and freeze financial aid to the already struggling PA -- a promise that has now been fulfilled.

After a dubious track record culminating in a defiant, unilateral move that flew in the face of previous agreements between Israel and the PA, one wonders how the PA could even be trusted if it were to engage in restarted peace talks.