国际英语新闻：Abbas waits for Quartet statement over resumption of direct talks: official

RAMALLAH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is waiting for a statement from the international Quartet for peace in the Middle East over the resumption of the direct peace talks with Israel, an official said on Friday.

Nemmer Hammad, an aid to Abbas told reporters that the president is waiting for a statement of the Quartet Committee consisting of United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to decide on resuming the direct peace talks with Israel, which had stopped in Dec. 2008.

The Quartet Committee is scheduled to convene on September to decide on the resumption of the direct peace talks with Israel.

The statement will be issued upon a Palestinian request, to define a reference for the direct peace talks, based on halting settlement and the vision of the two-state solution.

"The Quartet is supposed to convene to issue a statement that calls the Israeli and the Palestinian sides to get involved into direct talks," Hammad said.

He added that EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton had earlier announced that the Quartet "is working on forming the statement that calls for launching the direct talks."

Hammad revealed that the breakthrough in the issue of the direct talks happened following this week's meeting between President Abbas and U.S. envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah.

"The U.S. expressed readiness to support the choice of issuing a statement by the Quartet to encourage the two sides to go for direct negotiations," said Hammad, adding "we had asked for the versions that serve the direct talks."