JERUSALEM – Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu held talks on Monday with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, as international peace negotiators sought to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into some form of peace dialogue.
Israeli officials confirmed the two had met but refused to give details of what was discussed, as media reports suggested the premier was shying away from sending his chief negotiator to meet Quartet representatives in Brussels.
The Quartet chiefs — EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN head Ban Ki-moon — who last met in Munich on February 5, are due to meet again in Paris at an unspecified date in March.
Ahead of the principals’ meeting, their Middle East envoys are to hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Brussels on March 2, according to EU officials. Officials at Blair’s office in Jerusalem confirmed that Quartet envoys were holding a series of meetings in Brussels this week and were expected to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
But reports in two Israeli newspapers said Netanyahu had not yet given the green light to his chief negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, to attend the talks later this week.
