US Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Jordan on Thursday for talks aimed at calming a wave of violence gripping Israel and the occupied territories.
The meeting in Amman came hours after fresh clashes broke out in east Jerusalem where Israeli police fired tear gas, percussion bombs and rubber bullets to disperse Palestinian demonstrators.
Months-long unrest in annexed east Jerusalem has in recent days spread to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new uprising.
The meeting between Abbas and Kerry, who arrived in Jordan late on Wednesday, came a day after Israel approved plans for another 200 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem - a move sharply criticized by Washington.
Kerry and a sombre-looking Abbas embraced and had a brief whispered exchange as they met at the Palestinian leader’s hillside home in Amman where the US and Palestinian flags hung in front of a large night-time photo of Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque.