Quartet aims to meet in Middle East in August: EU
(LISBON) - The Quartet seeking peace in the Middle East will probably meet in the region in August, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Thursday.
Solana said it would be the first meeting of the Quartet -- which comprises the EU, the United States, the United Nations and Russia -- after Portugal assumes the six-month rotating EU presidency this weekend.
Solana, speaking alongside Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado at a press conference in Lisbon, described the situation in the Middle East as "complex and difficult."
The Quartet is looking to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and on Wednesday named former British prime minister Tony Blair as its new special envoy.
In his first comments since being named envoy, Blair said Thursday he planned to travel to the region in July, and reiterated that a two-state solution was the only way to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The Quartet has since 2003 tried to implement a "roadmap" for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
But the three-stage blueprint that should have led to the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel by 2005 has since languished.
The post of Quartet representative had been vacant since former World Bank chairman James Wolfensohn left in frustration in May 2006.
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