Secretary of State John Kerry once again denounced the recent spate of “terrorist attacks” against Israeli civilians Thursday and repeated his intentions to head to the region to try to calm tempers, AFP reported.
No timetable or itinerary has been released for the trip, but Kerry said, “I expect to be travelling to the region in the coming days and we will remain very closely engaged in order to support efforts to stabilize the situation.”
Kerry is due to fly to Milan on Friday to visit EXPO 2015, before flying on to Paris for a UNESCO board meeting then to Madrid for talks with the Spanish government, and so will not be free to head to the Middle East before Monday at the earliest, the news agency noted.
“In recent days we have seen an eruption of tragic, outrageous and unjustified attacks on innocent civilians who were simply trying to go about their daily business in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem,” Kerry said.
“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against innocent civilians and there is absolutely no justification for these reprehensible attacks and we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend its existence,” he said in an address at Indiana University.
“It is critically important that calm be restored as soon as possible and we the administration will continue to stress the importance politically and privately of preventing inflammatory rhetoric, accusations or actions that could lead to violence.”
Kerry first announced his intentions to visit the Middle East earlier this week.
“I will go there soon, at some point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can’t move that away from this precipice,” he said in a speech on Tuesday, adding that the United States’ goal for the region, the two-state solution, “could conceivably be stolen from everybody” if violence in the region were to spiral out of control.
State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed Kerry’s intentions a day later, though he could not confirm the timetable nor the venue of any talks.
Plans for Kerry’s trip come as the State Department has been forced to explain some of his recent controversial comments.
Earlier this week, Kerry gave an interview in which he blamed Israeli “settlements” for the latest terror wave.
“So here’s the deal. What’s happening is that unless we get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from everybody. And there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years,” he said.
“Now you have this violence because there’s a frustration that is growing, and a frustration among Israelis who don’t see any movement. So I look at that and I say if that did explode – and I pray and hope it won’t and I think there are options to prevent that – but we would inevitably be – at some point we’re going to have to be engaged in working through those kinds of difficulties. So better to try to find the ways to deal with it before that happens than later,” added Kerry.
Kirby later explained to reporters that the Secretary of State was not assigning blame when he said a “massive increase in settlements” over the past year had been followed by the current outbreak of violence.
Kirby said Kerry had been consistent in “not trying to affix … blame for the recent violence” but had discussed “the challenges that are posed on both sides by this absence of progress towards a two-state solution.”
The State Department spokesman also had to issue a semi-retraction after accusing Israel of violating the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as well as using “excessive force” against Arab terrorists.
At his daily briefing on Wednesday, Kirby essentially blamed Arab terror on Israeli policies over the Mount, claiming “well, certainly, the status quo has not been observed, which has led to a lot of violence.”
Several hours after the briefing, he posted a statement on his Twitter feed, reading: “Clarification from today’s briefing: I did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary – ed.) has been broken.”
“We welcome both Israel’s Jordan’s commitment to continued maintenance of status quo at Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.”
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