BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Mogherini spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone late on Sunday.
"President Abbas assured [Mogherini] that he is determined to keep the situation under control. Prime Minister Netanyahu restated to the High Representative his commitment to maintain the status quo at the holy sites," the European Union’s diplomatic office said in a press release.
Mogherini stressed the need to promote calm and encourage restraint in view of the latest deaths from clashes, knife attacks, an intercepted rocket and at least one attempt to detonate a suicide bomb.
A pregnant Palestinian woman and her daughter were killed in retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza after Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense intercepted a rocket launched from the exclave over the weekend.
In the telephone call with Mogherini, Abbas and Netanyahu expressed willingness to work on implementing the provisions outlined in the Middle East Quartet at the United Nations two weeks ago.
The Middle East Quartet comprises the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. It was established in 2002 to mediate a peace process toward a two-state solution in the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
