Middle East ‘Quartet’ prepares for meeting next week at UN

The top United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process, Terje Roed-Larsen, joined his colleagues from the European Union, Russian Federation and United States today in London to prepare for next week’s meeting of the so-called Quartet, a UN spokesman said.

The Quartet is the sponsor of the Road Map peace plan, which calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take a series of parallel and reciprocal steps leading to two states living side-by-side in peace by 2005.

Tuesday’s meeting will be hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his office at UN Headquarters in New York, Fred Eckhard said at the daily briefing.

In addition to the Secretary-General, the attendees are expected to include US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister Ryan Cowan of Ireland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, EU High Representative Javier Solana and EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

The Secretary-General is expected to read out a statement on behalf of the Quartet at a press conference following the meeting, according to Mr. Eckhard.