Kerry Seeks to Avert UN Palestinian Resolutions

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday the United States was seeking to defuse tensions over proposed U.N. resolutions to end the Zionist-Palestinian conflict during talks in Europe next week.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday the United States was seeking to defuse tensions over proposed U.N. resolutions to end the Zionist-Palestinian conflict during talks in Europe next week.

Kerry will meet Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rome on Monday and senior European officials to discuss possible resolutions, which would require a vote in the U.N. Security Council where the United States holds a veto.

"We're trying to figure out a way to help defuse the tensions and reduce the potential for more conflict and we're exploring various possibilities to that end," Kerry told reporters in Bogota when asked whether there is a resolution the U.S. could support.

Jordan has circulated a Palestinian resolution to the 15-member council calling for Zionist occupation of Palestinian territory to end by November 2016. Western diplomats have said the proposal is "unbalanced." France, Britain and Germany are in the process of drafting a proposal.

"There are a lot of different folks pushing in different directions out there, and the question is can we all pull in the same direction," Kerry said. "That's what we're looking at."

Some countries believe agreement on a resolution would be easier to achieve before Zionist elections in March.

Kerry met French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on the sidelines of a climate conference in Peru on Thursday to talk about a European proposal.

He also called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday to discuss "developments in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the region, as well as current initiatives at the U.N.," a U.S. official said.

Kerry and Lavrov will meet in Rome on Monday to discuss the same issues, as well as Ukraine and Syria, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.