“All sides need to de-escalate, reduce tension and take practical steps to calm things down,” Mr Blinken said.
He said delaying the decision on the evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and rerouting the Jerusalem Day parade were appreciated by Washington, but more needed to be done.
Mr Al Safadi, whose country is custodian of Haram Al Sharif, said: “Jerusalem is a red line and maintaining peace and stability is key.”
He also called for de-escalation and said “all illegal and provocative measures against the [people] of Sheikh Jarrah or in terms of violations into [Haram Al Sharif] must stop .
The United States has welcomed an announcement by the Taliban that a three-day ceasefire would come into effect in Afghanistan to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday, but urged the group to agree to a more long-term truce.
“We do welcome this announcement and any move that allows the Afghan people a reprieve from violence,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price said during a news conference in Washington, DC on Monday.
“We urge the Taliban to extend this ceasefire and order a significant reduction in violence,” Price said.
The Taliban said earlier on Monday that the ceasefire would come into effect later this week for the holiday, which takes place at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
7 May in 13:20
U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price confuted the CNN report that the Biden administration is weighing unfreezing $1 billion in Iranian funds that the country could use for humanitarian relief. Reporting suggesting we are weighing the release of Iranian funds as a unilateral gesture to Tehran is not true, which we made clear prior to publication, Ned Price wrote on Twitter. As we have said, any substantial move by the U.S. would have to be part of a process in which both sides take actions.
A meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission or Iran nuclear deal will be held in Vienna on May 7.
President Joe Biden is considering releasing $1 billion in frozen Iranian funds according to three people briefed on Biden administration deliberations, who spoke to CNN on Thursday.
The officials who spoke with CNN said the plan to release the frozen Iranian funds could serve as a goodwill gesture to the Iranian government to push forward negotiations surrounding Iran returning to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and the U.S. re-entering the agreement. Indirect negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal have been going on for more than a month in Vienna, Austria.
Rather than unilaterally releasing the funds to Iran, the officials said they may instead be placed into a humanitarian relief fund for the country. Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement was established last year as a way to allow humanitarian aid like food and medicine to be sent to Iran without violating U.S. sanctions.
0 shares
Political deputy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, leaves the Grand Hotel Wien where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, May 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)
VIENNA World powers held a fourth round of high-level talks Friday aimed at bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, with both sides signaling a willingness to work out the major stumbling blocks.
The talks began in Austria in early April. Russian delegate Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted following Friday’s meeting that “the participants agreed on the need to intensify the process.”
“The delegations seem to be ready to stay in Vienna as long as necessary to achieve the goal,” he wrote.