Daily Press Briefing – State of Palestine President Abbas’ Call to Expand the Quartet (Excerpts)

11 FEBRUARY 2020

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

/…

**Questions and Answers

Voilà.  Sir?

Question:  Thank you, Stéphane.  We just had the Palestinian President, [Mahmoud] Abbas, in the Security Council.  One of the things he said is… he was calling for an expansion of the Middle East Quartet.  He says it can take on board other countries, and that can be the mechanism for future talks.  It’s a fact‑check.  Is he right about that?  Can the Quartet be expanded with other country members?

Spokesman:  Well, I mean, the Quartet represents four entities.  That would be a discussion that will be had… have to be had at the Quartet level.

/…

For information media. Not an official record.