PM names Shalom as point man for talks with Palestinians

Interior Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) has been appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be Israel's new chief negotiator with the Palestinians, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed on Monday.

Shalom, who served as foreign minister from 2003 to 2006, will also be responsible for strategic dialogue with the U.S.

In the previous government, Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni was Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, while Likud minister Yuval Steinitz was responsible for strategic dialogue with the U.S.

Any new negotiations with the Palestinians would also involve Netanyahu's special envoy, attorney Isaac Molho, who would report directly to the prime minister. Netanyahu would remain the ultimate decision-maker on negotiations with the Palestinians, if they resume.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday that the EU wants a more active role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Mogherini will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority later this week.

Six months into her tenure, the 41-year-old Italian former foreign minister is eager to leverage Europe's position as Israel's biggest trade partner and as the Palestinians' main aid donor after last year's failure by the United States to make progress in the latest efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

"My very early visit has a political meaning," Mogherini told a news conference in Brussels on Monday.

"The European Union is ready and willing to play a major role in a relaunching of this process on the basis of the two-state solution."

Some EU diplomats believe Mogherini sees a chance for EU diplomacy in the absence of a major new push from Washington as President Barack Obama approaches his final 18 months in office.

"One thing is clear to everyone in the region," Mogherini said on Monday. "That the status quo is not an option."

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