EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday insisted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas must receive Quartet representatives “within days” in order to kick-start the peace talks. Mogherini met Abbas in Brussels on Monday and Netanyahu last week in Berlin.
“I have asked both Netanyahu and Abbas to receive the Quartet envoys in the coming days, not weeks,” Mogherini said, saying there was a need for speedy action before another surge in the violence begins, which could then spiral out of control.
The Quartet, comprised of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, was set up in 2002 to promote the Middle East Peace Process.
Mogherini recently offered her condolences to Israel on the occasion of the murder of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin in early October, by two gunmen, while the couple’s children were watching from the back seat of their car. On that occasion, she called for establishing a Palestinian state, arguing that “the continuing loss of life highlights once more the necessity for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Chairman Abbas has sought the EU’s help to “deescalate” the ongoing crisis. “What we are looking for…is to come back and stick and commit to this status quo [over the holy sites] that unfortunately has been neglected and ignored by the Israeli government,” he said recently, as all the while Palestinian media has been blasting its Arab audience with messages about an Israeli conspiracy to take over the Temple Mount.
Abbas said the Palestinian Authority wants to resume peace talks with Israel but only if Netanyahu’s government would put a final stop to settlements. Abbas also demands that Israel stop the “killings and attacks on Palestinians” who have been shot or otherwise disabled by the IDF and Israeli police in their attempts to stab and shoot Israeli civilians.