Netanyahu to meet Kerry in Berlin: Israeli envoy

Washington: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin next week, his country’s ambassador to Washington told CNN today.

“I know they were trying to work something out, because the prime minister is traveling to Germany to talk to Angela Merkel, and so Secretary of State Kerry will travel there to make it happen,” Ron Dermer said.

Earlier, Merkel’s office had said that the German chancellor would meet Netanyahu on Wednesday in Berlin.

The US State Department was not immediately able to confirm that Kerry plans to meet the Israeli leader, but the news broke as he was already on a flight to Europe for planned meetings in Milan, Madrid and Paris.

Before leaving, Kerry had said he hoped to travel to the Middle East region “in the coming days” in order to try to cool tempers between Israelis and Palestinians amid a new spate of violence in Jerusalem.