Quartet Cancels Visit at Netanyahu's Request

Representatives of the Middle East Quartet who were set to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah this week have canceled the trip at the request of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Haaretz reported Monday. The delegation, representing the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, was meant to discuss an end to the unrest as well as trust-building measures between Israel and the Palestinians. A senior Israeli official and a Western diplomat from one of the Quartet's members told Haaretz on Monday that the reason for the cancellation was Netanyahu's objection to the visit's timing. earlier this month, the Quartet announced it had decided to give new impetus to trying to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to resume peace talks, this time with the help of key Arab states.