The Middle East Quartet has urged the speedy resumption of talks between Palestine and the Israeli regime.
On Sunday, the representatives of the Quartet members - UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry - held talks on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to find a way to get Israeli-Palestinian talks started again.
"The Quartet underlined the importance of the parties resuming negotiations as soon as possible with a view to reaching a just, lasting and comprehensive peace," read the statement issued by the Quartet after the meeting.
"Pending the resumption of negotiations, the Quartet called on both parties to refrain from actions that undermine trust or prejudge final status issues," the statement added.
The last round of talks between Palestinians and Israeli aggressors collapsed in April 2014, a few months before the Tel Aviv regime launched an atrocious attack on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Over 2,140 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in the Israeli onslaught. More than 11,100 others, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were injured.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks have been hampered by Tel Aviv’s continued settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian lands.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
FNR/HMV/SS