By KUNA,
United Nations : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair late Wednesday discussed conditions required for the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli talks and “urgent” need to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.
They “exchanged views on the current situation in the Middle East, and discussed in some detail the conditions required to support a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” his press office said in a statement following the meeting.
UN officials would not elaborate, but it is understood that they discussed the issue of the Israeli recent decision to freeze the building of settlements for ten months, except in East Jerusalem. Blair refused to talk to the press.
The statement said Blair briefed the Secretary-General on his work as Quartet Envoy and both officials discussed the situation in Gaza and the urgent need for reconstruction work to begin. The Quartet members – UN, US, EU and Russia – discussed the Israeli decision during the last few days but failed to issue a joint statement deploring it.