WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry was in China yesterday but that did not stop him from engaging with Mideast leaders and others in a bid to halt escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence.
With Hamas rockets raining down on Israel, and the Jewish state launching punishing air strikes in Gaza where the two-day operation has left 57 Palestinians dead, Kerry was leaning on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to exercise restraint on both sides.
“Secretary Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning, and he plans to speak with President Abbas over the next 24 hours,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington. It was Kerry’s third call with Netanyahu since Friday.
The top US diplomat has also spoken by phone with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as well as Qatar’s foreign minister, as part of what Psaki described as Kerry’s “reaching out and having a discussion about the path forward with these regional leaders.”
The White House’s coordinator for the Middle East, Philip Gordon, was in Jerusalem and the West Bank yesterday meeting with Abbas and Israeli officials, while Kerry was been phoning world leaders “as we continue to evaluate the situation and look for ways to stop the rocket attack,” Psaki added.AFP
