RAMALLAH, October 10, 2011 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Authority is ready to resume negotiations with Israel once it stops settlements and accepts the 1967 lines, Sunday said presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

“We are ready to return to negotiations on condition settlements are brought to a total halt and Israel recognizes the 1967 borders as the reference for the peace process,” he said in a brief statement reacting to a call by the Middle East Quartet on the Palestinians and Israel to resume talks.

Quartet representative, Tony Blair, said after the meeting held in Brussels on Sunday that the meeting showed the Quartet's commitment to the timetable for talks set out in the September 23 statement.

“We look forward to meeting with the parties shortly,” he said. “This provides us with the opportunity to explore grounds for revived negotiations to take place.”

A statement by Catherine Ashton, foreign policy chief of the European Union, which along with the United States, the United Nations, and Russia make up the Quartet team, said after the meeting she has hosted and which was to follow up on the Quartet’s September 23 statement issued in New York, that the meeting discussed what to do next to encourage Israelis and Palestinians “to resume substantive negotiations as soon as possible.”

“With that in mind,” she said, “we will be contacting the parties to invite them to meet in the coming days. I believe we have made good progress and will keep in close contact with Quartet partners and colleagues in the region with view to meet and move things forward.”

M.S.