US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Jordan on Monday on his sixth trip to the region as he tries to push Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks.
In Amman, Kerry will meet a delegation from the Arab League and Jordanian leaders, a top US official said.
Since he took office on Feb. 1, the US top diplomat has made a search for a long-elusive Middle East peace deal one of the top priorities of his tenure.
However, US officials were quick to downplay hopes that his return to the region signaled that an announcement was pending on a resumption of the talks, which have stalled since September 2010. They even could not immediately confirm whether he would meet with top Palestinian or Israeli leaders.
A Palestinian official said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Kerry in Jordan.
“We are waiting to see what new ideas Kerry will bring with him after his last tour of the region,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
However, US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the full details of the trip were not yet finalized. She said that Kerry would meet today with Jordanian leaders, including King Abdullah, as well as Arab League officials to “provide an update on Middle East peace.”
They would also discuss the political upheaval in Egypt and the conflict in Syria, and it was expected that Egypt, a key member of the Arab League, would send someone to the talks in Amman.
Psaki downplayed expectations of any announcement of a resumption of talks, but she stressed: “The secretary would not be going back to the region if he did not feel there was an opportunity to keep making steps forward.”
Meanwhile, Yuval Diksin, the former head of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet, warned in an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Monday that if the window for a two-state solution closes, the growing Israeli Arab population and sheer demographics made a peace deal the only option.
Israel would have no choice but to grant full voting rights to Palestinians or risk turning into an “ostracized apartheid state,” he wrote.
“In such a scenario, there is no need to hold further discussions about the future of the Jewish and democratic vision as put forth by our founding fathers... It will melt away and disappear,” he wrote.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese