US, Quartet peace envoys to meet in Brussels
Mar 20, 2012, 7:06 PM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. and other Mideast peace envoys are meeting Wednesday in Brussels in a bid to boost Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says U.S., European Union, U.N. and Russian envoys will discuss Palestinian state-building efforts. She didn’t say if the so-called Quartet would seek to advance Israeli-Palestinian proposals on borders and security in a final peace agreement.
The sides are supposed to reach a treaty by year-end but talks are foundering. Palestinians want Israeli settlement construction stopped in lands they seek for their state. Israel opposes a role for Hamas in Palestinian governance.
Nuland said mediators would lay the groundwork for a meeting in Washington of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.N. secretary-general and the top EU and Russian diplomats next month.
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