The 'big four' meet in New York over Middle East peace talks

The big four include The United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Russia, of which the former two made fresh calls yesterday prior to the UN General Assembly in New York.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was expected to meet with her quartet counterparts to discuss new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, currently threatened by the expiration of the settlement at the end of September.

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke in a meeting yesterday. The Palestinian leader said his people "will not negotiate for a single day" if the 10-month moratorium lapses. However, the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given no sign it will continue the freeze.

In separate talks with Peres, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon underlined the importance of extending the moratorium.
Ban and Peres "spoke of the need to maintain calm on the ground and to create an environment that is propitious" for the success of negotiations with the Palestinians, a UN spokesman had said.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's chief diplomat, issued a similar appeal after talks with Clinton. "It's clear that there is a momentum potentially within the talks," Ashton said.

The quartet meeting "will be the chance to review where we've got to, to look at how we can support the process going forward," Ashton said.

The deadline for the end of Israel's freeze on settlement construction is expected to be September 26, exactly 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision.

But the Israeli military order regarding the moratorium states that it will only close at midnight on September 30.