The next meeting of the international Quartet for the Middle East will take place in late March or early April, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Monday.
After meetings of the Quartet - comprising the EU, Russia, US and the United Nations - on February 2 in Washington and February 21 in Berlin, the "Quartet is much more engaged now" Ferrero-Waldner told journalists in Brussels. "Another meeting is scheduled in Cairo at the end of March, beginning of April," she added.
A European diplomatic source stressed that the meeting was more likely to take place "after Easter", which lands this year on April 8. By then, a Palestinian government of national unity could be formed and the Quartet may be in a position to renew direct financial aid to the Palestinian government, which was suspended after the radical Hamas movement came to power last March.
The European Union and the United States have repeated up to now that the flow of direct aid will not be renewed unless the future Palestinian government renounces violence, recognises Israel and abides by earlier agreements. Some EU member states, notably France, are in favour of resuming aid as soon as the unity government is in place.