ACTIVITIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST QUARTET AND ITS PARTICIPANTS TO ACHIEVE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN SETTLEMEN WITHIN THE ROAD MAP PROJECT (2003 – 2008)

The most active phase in the work of the Quartet of international intermediaries was connected with the attempts to implement the Road Map plan for the Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. The significance of the Road Map lies in the fact that it is the plan on the Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement which was, for the first time ever, collectively drafted by the global actors and accepted by both conflicting parties To facilitate the implementation of the Road Map, a peculiar "division of labour" based on historical roles which each member of the Quartet had played in the Middle East settlement, emerged inside the Quartet. The work of the Quartet as a collective intermediary was complemented by individual actions of its members which influenced or were supposed to influence the Road Map implementation. The complex analysis of the examined problem conducted by the author in accordance with his own criteria revealed that all other activities of the international intermediaries were, in one way or another, connected to the Road Map. They were either implemented mainly within the framework of the aforementioned peace plan, or were connected with the efforts to create conditions to get the parties back to implementation of that plan, or were aimed at including alternative programmes into the framework of the Road Map. Quartet's activities to implement the settlement plan couldn't avoid the influence by the United States and a special character of the US-Israeli relations. The US leading role in the work of the Quartet led to a series of events which aggravated the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and became decisive for further development of the conflict which in the end led to the current stalemate. Nevertheless, the very fact of the Quartet creation, which evidenced that even the most influential global actor has no power to solve all aspects of the regional conflict on its own, became a sign of gradual transformation of a unipolar world towards a multipolar one.

Middle East Quartet, Israeli-Palestinian settlement, Road Map, International Mediators,  Policy of unilateral disengagement, Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Authority reform,  Conference in Annapolis, HAMAS, West Bank, Gaza Strip, UN, EU, USA, Russian Federation

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