Bolton: U.N. Should Drop Out of Mideast ‘Quartet'

UNITED NATIONS — As U.N. officials seek a larger role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian Arab diplomacy, a former top American diplomat, John Bolton, said a group known as "the Quartet" should never have included the United Nations as a member.

The group — which also includes America, the European Union, and Russia — is expected to meet on Friday in Washington, after Secretary-General Ban wraps up a week-long trip to Europe and Africa.

The Quartet has been a staple of Middle East diplomacy since its inception in 2002, after President Bush first articulated his vision of two independent states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace, a plan he dubbed the "road map." Friday's meeting of Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, top European diplomats, Secretary of State Rice, and Mr. Ban will be the U.N. leader's first foray into the Arab-Israeli dispute as a Quartet member.

The secretary-general "hopes that the Quartet will seriously engage with the key issues that have a direct impact on the situation on the ground, going beyond mere statements," his spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said yesterday.

Mr. Ban "is fully aware that, within the region and beyond, many are looking at the Quartet to be more energetic in its efforts than it has been at times, to break the current impasse in the peace process," Ms. Montas added.

Mr. Bolton, who resigned as American ambassador to the United Nations in December, took a different tack. "I never thought the Quartet was a good idea," he told The New York Sun. "I don't think the U.N. should have a role" in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, he said.

Unlike Russia, the European Union, and America, the United Nations is not a sovereign state and therefore carries no legal status in such a group, Mr. Bolton — an international lawyer by training — said.

Officials in Washington see the Quartet as "one instrument" among many in advancing the road map, which remains the goal of American policy in the region, an American official who requested anonymity said yesterday.

A spokesman for the State Department, Sean McCormack, described Friday's meeting recently as a "vanilla" Quartet gathering. For Israel, the Quartet was never much more than a formal arena in which secondary diplomatic players — including the United Nations — could "vent" their opinions, one Israeli official, who requested anonymity because he wanted to speak candidly, said.

The official said Israel sees Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations as biased, but that their inclusion in the Quartet prevents them from expressing hostile opinions or launching initiatives in other forums.

Conversely, Arabs see America as too pro-Israeli, and welcome the Quartet as a body that could balance out that bias. Nevertheless, many in Arab capitals now see the conflict with Israel as secondary to the ascendancy of Iran as a regional power, which threatens traditional Sunni Arab regimes.

Yesterday, a military force of Fatah, which represents secular Sunni Palestinian Arabs, raided the Islamic University in Gaza, considered a stronghold of the terrorist group Hamas. Up to nine Hamas combatants reportedly were killed, and more than 70 were injured.

According to several reports from the region, five Iranian officers, who traveled to Gaza to train Hamas troops, were arrested, one of them carrying the rank of general. One Iranian killed himself, and four of the detainees admitted that they were experts in chemical munitions.

Mr. Ban, who told the Sun in a December interview that he saw the Palestinian Arab dispute with Israel as the "core" of the unrest in the Middle East, has started recently to talk more about Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon.

The secretary-general will be joined in Washington by the U.N. Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, as well as a British aide, Michael Williams. A former South Korean foreign minister, Mr. Ban is currently involved in a struggle to gain control over the U.N. bureaucracy, including the world body's Middle East policies.

Some Middle East advisers are touting the Quartet as a way for the United Nations to get involved in headline-grabbing diplomacy. Others say the Quartet is all but dead, and are promoting U.N. diplomacy that will be free of Washington's influence.