Summary John Kerry will visit Middle East to call for calm amid clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to travel to the Middle East to call for calm amid a spate of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, his spokesman said Wednesday.
State Department spokesman John Kirby could not confirm the timetable nor the venue of any talks -- and played down the possibility of a revived peace process -- but said Kerry hoped to talk to local leaders.
"I think he has been very clear that he wants both sides to take affirmative actions... to de-escalate the tension, to restore calm, and to try to move forward towards a two-state solution," Kirby said.
"He has every intention of traveling to the region soon and I don t have anything to announce today with respect to travels," Kirby said. "Travel to the region is as specific as it can be right now."
Asked about media reports that Kerry hopes to host talks between Israel s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Jordan, Kirby said he had "nothing to report on the press reports you have seen with respect to that."
"He does remain deeply concerned by continued escalating violence. It s something he has been focused on for a while now and he intends to travel to the region to continue those kinds of discussions," he said.
Israel mobilized hundreds of soldiers on Wednesday as it clamped down on Palestinian neighborhoods of east Jerusalem in the wake of a spate of stabbing attacks, amid fears of a full-scale uprising.
Washington condemned Palestinian knife and gun attacks on Israelis as "acts of terrorism" but has not blamed one side or the other for the renewal of violence, stressing that both need to work to restore calm.
And on Wednesday, asked about an incident in the southern town of Dimona in which an Israeli stabbed four Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, Kirby said: "Individuals on both sides of this divide have proven capable of and, in our view, are guilty of acts of terrorism."
