Brussels, 22/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Washington (US) on Wednesday 21 January, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that she was in favour of enlarging the Quartet on the Middle East (EU, US, Russia and UN). “An enlarged version of the Quartet could be useful”, she said at a conference organised by the Center in the United States and Europe (CUSE) and the German Marshall Fund. In Mogherini's view, “we cannot afford to leave the process without an international framework”. “We should work on a possibly enlarged Quartet which could act as a forum to establish a renewed global consensus on the conflict - a sort of laboratory to test international positions that could ultimately find expression through the United Nations so that the process not only be started again, but bring results”, she said.
Mogherini hailed the efforts of US Secretary of State John Kerry in trying to re-start the peace process. She stated that if the conditions were again met for re-starting the negotiations, “it should be certain that the international community be behind these efforts” and that it be there in a more structured way. “An international framework needs to be built and it needs to be structured more”, she said.
Recalling the Arab initiative of 2002, Mogherini stated that there was not only need of tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also the conflicts between Israel and the Arab countries. “Maybe the situation in the region is so serious and so bad that this could provide an opportunity to work on a common basis of security in the region between Israel and the Arab countries”, she said. In Mogherini's opinion, there could be added value in enlarging the scope of the process.
Mogherini also said she believed that the coming months would be difficult for the negotiations. Parliamentary elections will take place in Israel on 17 March. (CG)