Both sides must show leadership, restraint, says EU foreign policy chief

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, says Israelis and Palestinians must show leadership and restraint amid the current wave of violence.

In remarks after a series of meetings in Berlin, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mogherini says “showing leadership and acting with a certain degree of restraint is not only a responsibility the two leaderships have to their own people, but also to the regional and the international communities.”

She adds that in her meeting with the Israeli PM, she received a “clear commitment reaffirming that he wants to guarantee the status quo in the holy sites.”

In a statement released to the press, she also says that a deescalation of the situation must also go hand in hand with a political process.

“It is not Phase 1 and Phase 2; the two have to go together even more now than before. Without a political horizon, the situation is not going to calm down,” she says.