OREANDA-NEWS. July 13, 2011. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, currently on an official visit to Washington, took part in the meeting of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators on July 11, 2011.

The Quartet members held a thorough and frank exchange of views on the situation on the Palestinian-Israeli track of the Middle East process. Noting that there remains a significant gap between the parties in their approach to the final status issues, meeting participants discussed ways of overcoming the dead-end situation on this track and underscored the necessity of expeditiously restoring the dialogue between Ramallah and Tel Aviv. The Quartet partners reaffirmed their determination to continue to work intensively with the Palestinians and Israelis toward this end, who themselves must make difficult but obvious choices for peace.

Sergey Lavrov noted that movement towards a Palestinian-Israeli settlement should proceed within the framework of international legality, including the Arab peace initiative. In this regard, the Quartet needs to more actively draw leading Arab states into its efforts and regularly invite the new Arab League Secretary General, Nabil al-Araby, to its meetings.

The Minister expressed the view that it would be important for the international mediators to hold one more meeting before a possible discussion in autumn at the UN of the question of recognition of a Palestinian state.