There are real signs of movement on both sides of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published Thursday. Speaking after a recent visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to the region as holder of the EU presidency, Steinmeier stressed the need to bring Syria into the peace process. "We need all of Israel's neighbours, if we are to have lasting stability and peace," Steinmeier told Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper. But he acknowledged that the first signs of an easing of tensions were occurring in Israeli-Palestinian relations. "There are real signs of movement. Both on the Israeli and on the Palestinian side we discern a new tendency to reflect," the German foreign minister said.
