Quartet... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy....
trusts President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
because he is committed to the grinding of the peace processor, head of mission Gary Grappo told Ma'an on Tuesday.
Abbas hopes that Israel and the PA "will go back to negotiations in order to establish a Paleostinian state," Grappo said.
"The Quartet's stance is statehood with an agreement first instead of unilateral options."
Grappo said the Quartet was in full support of Paleostinian unity, but noted bias for caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either...
"The west will not be concerned or alarmed" by the change if Fayyad stays, he said.
If a new prime minister is appointed, he added, the Quartet will evaluate its position.
Peace talks between Israel and Abbas ground to a halt weeks after the began in September when Israel refused to renew a partial halt on West Bank settlement construction.
The Paleostinians said they would not continue talks as long as Israel was building on land they want for a promised state.