The Middle East Quartet called Friday on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank, while voicing deep concern over the Gaza Strip due to an Israeli blockade. In a joint statement issued after talks between the four key powers in London, they also urged Arab states to make good on pledges to help the Palestinians. “The Quartet ... called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001,” they said, in a statement quoted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The Quartet called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction,” Ban added. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet's envoy, said the situation in Gaza was “terrible.” Warning of “an impending humanitarian crisis,” they added that the Israeli stranglehold on the sliver of land “has made life for ordinary people intolerable” and made it near impossible for aid agencies to work there. The four powers – the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union – also urged Arab donor states to follow through on commitments to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is decided to deploy hundreds of members of his security forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin as early as Saturday, expanding a Western-backed campaign to bolster statehood talks.
