Qa'da, 1431, Oct 19, 2010, SPA -- International powers must act quickly to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table in order to avoid a new Middle East crisis, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Monday. "We have a brief and crucial window to overcome the current impasse," Oscar Fernandez Taranco, the U.N.'s assistant secretary general for political affairs, told the council. Highlighting international opposition to Israel's refusal to extend a freeze on settlement building, Taranco said progress was needed in weeks. "The secretary general continues to believe that if the door to peace closes it will be very hard to reopen," he said. Israel and the Palestinian leadership started new U.S.-brokered talks six weeks ago. But they have not met since September 15 and Palestinian leaders have said they will not negotiate until Israel extends a 10-month moratorium on settlement building that expired late last month. The Arab League has given the United States one month to end the dispute "Intensive diplomatic efforts led by the United States and supported by all members of the Quartet are ongoing to create conditions conducive to the continuation of negotiations," Taranco said. He said the diplomatic Quartet-the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations-could meet soon to discuss the deadlock. The United States has called on Israel to extend freeze of settlement building and its representative at the meeting, Brooke Anderson, reaffirmed U.S. "disappointment" at Israel's announcement of new building tenders on Friday. She said it was "contrary to our efforts to resume negotiations." Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, said Israel's settlement building showed its "intention to continue pursuit of its narrow, reckless expansionist agenda, at the expense of the prospects for peace and security."
