‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict might spin out of control,’ warns Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that the Palestinians and Israelis have to take tangible steps towards deescalating the tense situation otherwise it could “spin out of control,” Arab48.com has reported. Speaking in Boston after a visit to the Middle East where he met Israeli and Palestinian officials, Kerry told journalists that he is “worried” about the situation there.

“Both sides have important decisions to make for the future and we obviously hope they make the choices that will advance the prospects for lasting peace,” he said. “There are extraordinary concerns, obviously, about the violence.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kerry was dispatched to Israel and the occupied West Bank by President Barack Obama to try to restore calm as well as public confidence in the viability of a two-state solution. “We are committed to that, two states with two peoples living side by side in peace and security,” he explained.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to a US request for permission for the Palestinians to build in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is controlled by Israel, was that the quid pro quo should be international acceptance of settlement building. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner indicated that the US answer to this is “a big no,” noted the Journal. “The US government has never defended or supported Israeli settlements and activity associated with them and by extension does not pursue policies that would legitimise them.”

Administrations of both parties have long recognised that settlement activity and efforts to change the facts on the ground undermine the goal of a two-state solution, the spokesman added.