In his meeting with the Palestinian president on Sunday, Kerry emphasized his desire to achieve a two-state solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
He also used the occasion to address the wave of violence that began in early October continues to stir the region. 27 Israelis - as well as an American and an Eritrean - have been killed in a spate of attacks by Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, 176 Palestinians - many but not all of them attackers - have been killed by Israeli forces.
"The Secretary continued to urge for calm and a decrease in violence, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
Kerry and Abbas met in Jordan, where the Secretary of State was also set to meet King Abdullah II to discuss the ongoing war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
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