Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Rome on Sunday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on developments in Israel and the West Bank, the State Department said on Wednesday.
“John Kerry will travel to Rome on Sunday to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu on developments in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem and region,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Twitter.
The State Department did not offer more specifics on the hastily-arranged talks. The meeting comes as Jordan pushes to begin talks with United Nations Security Council members on Palestinian and European proposals for a draft resolution to end the Middle East conflict.
Jordan circulated a Palestinian-drafted resolution to the 15-member council last month calling for Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory to end by November 2016.
France, Britain and Germany are also drafting a resolution, which French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said would propose concluding peace talks in two years.
A senior State Department official said Kerry would meet with Fabius on the sidelines of a climate conference in Lima, Peru on Thursday. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Ukraine are likely to be discussed during the meeting, another department official added.
Meanwhile, tensions escalated on Wednesday after a Palestinian minister died shortly after an Israeli border policeman shoved and grabbed him by the throat during a protest in the West Bank. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the incident as barbaric.
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