Article: Israel And The Last Days
 

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday said the international community still sought to achieve a peace deal and a Palestinian state by September, despite the region's political turmoil. Despite the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the resignation of the Palestinian cabinet as well as Saab Erakat, their chief negotiator, Ashton said the goal was still achievable. "It's a timeframe that everybody has signed up to," she told reporters in Jerusalem ahead of talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "I think that we have to try and reach that target," she said, while admitting it would be "challenging." Ashton flew in for a one-day visit aimed at galvanising both sides into restarting peace negotiations which hit an impasse late September and look unlikely to resume any time soon. The Middle East peace Quartet -- the European Union, United States, Russia and United Nations -- earlier this month reiterated its support for "concluding these negotiations by September 2011." Israeli public radio quoted the firebrand Lieberman as telling his guest that the international community must find a way to block Iran's nuclear ambitions before asking Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. At those talks, the Quartet peacemakers called on all parties "to undertake urgently efforts to expedite Israeli-Palestinian" peace, terming it imperative because of the political turmoil in the region.