From Ma'an News Agency, 16 March 2010 11:39:
(Bethlehem - Ma'an) - On 18-19 March, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, accompanied by US envoy George Mitchell, will participate in a meeting of the Quartet, the State Department announced Monday.
She will meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, as well as Quartet Representative Tony Blair, to discuss Mideast peace efforts, Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley said.
In a statement, Crowley said the secretary would also meet with senior Russian officials to discuss progress on a successor agreement to START, cooperation on nonproliferation, counterterrorism, regional security issues, and the work of the Bilateral Presidential Commission.
The US State Department is waiting for a formal Israeli response to its concerns, declining comment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks in support of settlements, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.
Netanyahu earlier in the day indicated that construction of Israeli settlements would continue in East Jerusalem, despite an angry phone call last week from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging him to stop, AFP said.
"When she outlined what she thought appropriate actions would be to the prime minister, she asked for a response by the Israeli government. We wait for the response," State Department spokesman reportedly Philip Crowley told reporters.
Crowley added: "We asked for a formal response from the Israeli government and when we get that response we'll react to it."
He also said US envoy George Mitchell may reschedule travel plans to the region, where he was expected to arrive this week.
"This is a fluid situation. As of this moment he's still in the United States," Crowley said, according to AFP.
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