RAMALLAH, July 11 (JMCC) - Members of the Quartet meeting in Washington Monday are expected to back ideas proposed by US President Barack Obama in a May 19 speech that called for a return to negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders with land swaps,
reports Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Disagreements over the exact wording of the document have yet to be ironed out, however.
Monday's meeting of Quartet foreign ministers and the UN secretary general comes after the European Union exerted intense pressure for the presentation of an international peace plan on the conflict. The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has argued such a peace proposal would constitute an alternative to the Palestinian push for recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the UN in September, and that it might convince the Palestinians to refrain from going forward with their plans.
In the past two weeks, France has put heavy pressure on Ashton and the other Quartet members for the group's statement to include an invitation to Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations based on Obama's remarks on the 1967 borders and on recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
The U.S. is proposing a Quartet statement that mentions the Obama address in relatively general terms and announces that a Quartet delegation would visit the region for additional talks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
contacted Quartet representatives, lobbying them to adopt a 2009 European Union policy document that adopts the 1967 borders as a baseline.