(MENAFN- The Peninsula) US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Rome yesterday for a flurry of meetings about a looming UN showdown amid a European-led drive to push moves towards Palestinian statehood.
US officials told reporters accompanying Kerry on his plane that Washington wanted to learn more about the European position.
In the past the US has consistently used its power of veto at the UN to block moves it sees as anti-Israel.
But US officials say the US administration has not yet decided whether to back or veto any UN resolution on the issue, arguing it would be "premature" as no draft text exists yet.
Kerry first met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday, before talks today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I believe the Middle East issue is crucial for making sure that we don't allow the situation to degrade further," Lavrov said as he met Kerry in the US ambassador's residence in Rome.
"I would be very much interested in discussing what we can do together to avoid this."
Since the collapse of Kerry's peace bid in April and the 50-day war in the Gaza Strip in the summer, there has been growing international concern about rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions amid a slew of attacks.
After Netanyahu called snap elections in March, some Europeans have pointed to a narrow window of opportunity to push a Palestinian resolution at the UN Security Council and the Palestinians have urged a vote by the end of the year.
Washington has long opposed unilateral Palestinian moves to win recognition for a state of Palestine at the United Nations, saying it would prejudge the outcome of the stalled peace negotiations with Israel.
But officials said they drew a distinction between a unilateral step, and an effort to draw up a multilateral resolution at the UN Security Council which would have the backing of many nations.
There's a growing US recognition of European impatience with the current status quo, as several European parliaments in recent weeks have called on their governments to recognise a state of Palestine.
"Our overall goal here is to hear from and engage with other stakeholders... to hear their views and to the best of our ability work towards a common path forward," a State Department official said.
"We all want to keep open the hope of a two-state solution and we all want to prevent ... an escalation of the violence on the ground."
The top US diplomat will also meet for a few hours late today in Paris with French, German and British foreign ministers and new EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
He will then fly to London to meet chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and the secretary general of the Arab League tomorrow.
Jordan last month circulated a draft Palestinian text setting November 2016 as a deadline for the end of the Israeli occupation.
But the text ran into opposition from the United States because it set a two-year timetable for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the West Bank.
"That's not the way I think that we would look at handling a very complicated security negotiation by mandating a deadline of two years," the State Department official said, asking not to be identified.
Netanyahu yesterday rejected all talk of withdrawing from east Jerusalem and the West Bank within two years.
Pulling out now would bring "Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.
France stepped in last month to try to cobble together along with Britain and Germany a resolution that would win consensus at the 15-member council.
The new text would call for a return to negotiations with a view to achieving a two-state solution by which Israel and a Palestinian state would co-exist.
But the US official said there did not yet appear to be any European agreement on a draft resolution.
"There's a draft, a paper, that the French floated around, but it by no means represents a consensus European position," the official said.
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