Meets Abbas and later Jordan King to quell Palestinian-Israeli unrest
Amman : US Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today as part of an international diplomatic push to quell a wave of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence. The talks in Amman, at which Abbas sought assurances over Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound that has been the focal point of unrest, came as a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli security guard in the West Bank and was killed, according to police.
Kerry, who held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday, later went into a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, custodian of Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The top US diplomat and Abbas both expressed guarded optimism as they began their talks, which came a day after more than 80 people were wounded in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Kerry told reporters he was “hopeful”, without elaborating, while Abbas said: “All the time we have the hope.” The latest wave of violence erupted over the status of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and has long been a crucible for tensions fuelling the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu has repeatedly accused Abbas of fanning the flames by suggesting Israel wants to change the status quo at the site under which Jews are allowed to visit but not pray. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said today that Netanyahu had “changed the status of the Al-Aqsa mosque — that’s why we and Jordan are asking the American side to re-establish the situation”. “The king has guardianship over Al-Aqsa mosque and the holy places and will not allow this manipulation by Netanyahu,” he told reporters after the Abbas-Kerry meeting.
The international community is seeking a halt to a wave of violence that many fear heralds a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Kerry, his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon — members of the Middle East peacemaking Quartet — appealed for “maximum restraint” after talks
in Vienna.
