EU foreign policy chief to visit Israel, PA next week

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority next week in a bid to push along stagnant peace efforts now that Jerusalem has sworn in a new government.

Moghineri will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with opposition leader Isaac Herzog while in Israel on Wednesday, according to Israeli media reports.

She will also travel to the West Bank, where she will meet with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the senior Palestinian leadership, according to the reports.

There was no immediate confirmation of the visit from the EU.

Mogherini will visit less than a week after Netanyahu’s new government is sworn in, and will look to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which have languished for over a year.

International pressure on Israel over the Palestinian issue is expected to ramp up in coming months, after a brief hiatus as capitals waited for the results of March general elections in Israel.

A group of former high-ranking European Union officials called on the EU this week to adopt a more aggressive stance toward Israel on the Palestinian issue in the wake of Netanyahu’s victory and his formation of a right-leaning government.

In a statement Mogherini issued last week congratulating Netanyahu on the formation of the new coalition, she said that the EU would continue to work with the Israeli government “on a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship as well as on important regional and global issues of joint interest.”

“The Israeli people and the Palestinian people deserve not only a future, but also a present of peace after too much suffering: entire generations have paid and still pay the price of a lack of confidence and courage. It’s time for courageous choices for the institutions of both sides,” Mogherini said in her statement.

Promising that Israel and the Palestinians would “have the European Union by their side,” she added, “I am ready to personally engage in order to facilitate further progress and look forward to working with the new government.”

Jonathan Beck, Stuart Winer and Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.