US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Berlin today for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he hopes will help ease spiraling tensions and violence with the Palestinians.
A senior official traveling with Kerry says the secretary would use the Germany talks to try to "change the tone of the public discourse" between Israel and the Palestinians and clarify the status of the holy site at the center of the tensions.
The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to discuss it by name.
Kerry, who will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday in Jordan, has said he wants clarity about the status quo about the site, but officials say he doesn't believe that needs to be in writing.
With only a general outline of goals in these discussions, Kerry arrived here intending to listen as much as talk, as he steers attempts to restore relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Kerry is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin, and then Vienna, where he will see the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia about Syria on Friday. He then plans to visit Amman, where he will see Jordan's King Abdullah in addition to his talks with Abbas. A stop in Saudi Arabia is also envisioned.
Complicating his already delicate tasks, the situations in both hotspots took unexpected and potentially dangerous turns late Tuesday and Wednesday.
Netanyahu blamed a former Palestinian leader for inspiring Hitler's Holocaust. Those comments, coupled with new Palestinian stabbing attacks on Israelis, threaten to further inflame the combustible atmosphere.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad in Moscow, suggesting that Putin's support for Assad's government will not wane.
Although State Department spokesman John Kirby wouldn't criticize Netanyahu for incitement, he said of the Holocaust comments, "The scholarly evidence does not support that position."
He took a similar constrained approach on Assad's trip to Russia, saying it was not surprising given the two countries' expanding military relationship.
US officials have yet to detail any American plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian unrest that erupted a month ago over Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site.
During that time, 10 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian assailants, mostly in knife attacks, while 47 Palestinians including 26 labeled by Israel as attackers have been killed by Israeli fire.
