US Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a speech on his vision for peace in the Middle East on Wednesday, the State Department says, as Israel continues to lash out at a UN Security Council resolution condemning its settlements.
"I think this is, again, Secretary Kerry sharing his vision for how we can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday.
Kerry led the last attempt to broker a peace deal but negotiations collapsed in April 2014 after nine months of talks.
Toner said Kerry had been working on peace in the Middle East for many years and that he wanted to express his view before his tenure as secretary of state comes to an end.
The vision however will be short-lived, with Kerry due to leave the State Department on January 20 when president-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
His speech comes amid strained relations between the US and Israel, after the veto-holder abstained on Friday from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Toner said Kerry's speech would "touch on" the resolution, and rejected Israeli accusations that the US had been the driving force behind it.
"The United States did not draft this resolution, nor did it put it forward," Toner said, adding that it was drafted and introduced by Egypt in co-ordination with the Palestinian Territories.
He said the US only pointed out that changes to the resolution were needed when it became clear that the Egyptians and the Palestinians would bring the resolution to a vote and that every other country on the council would support it.
