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It comes in kerry's final three weeks in office and also in the wake of the united states abstaining from that u.n. resolution vote that demanded an end to the israeli settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem. secretary kerry also expected to argue against israel's charge that the united states orchestrated the united nations vote. turkey and russia have agreed on a cease-fire plan in syria that will take effect at midnight. all part of an effort by the two countries to broker a peace deal in syria's nearly six-year war between the syrian government and rebel groups. according to the ...

Jake. we never told anybody how we would vote on the text of the resolution because we didn't know what the text would be until it was introduced by the egyptians. all the time we have conversations about different resolutions kicking around in the security council. we had not communicated how we would vote, we did not draft it. we didn't know what the text would be until it was put forward. the president didn't give her power to settlemecement it untiy of the resolution. we abstained because we believed it was the right thing. we're willing to defend our abstaining on the resolution. i thi ho...

To advance a two-state solution on the ground. reporter: we expect a further defense of abstaining of the vote that did allow the resolution to pass the u.n. security council. the u.n. and the obama administration have been make an point that it is long-standing position of the united states that settlement activity beyond the 1967 borders undermines israel's security. the administration also made the point it criticized the palestinians for failing to condemn terrorism. >> there is new reaction from president-elect donald trump? reporter: there is. we've seen aligning of the israeli position ...

Middle east. we know that from the very beginning this was something that president obama wanted to do. he made it clear within his first 100 days. a big disappointment for the administration. why now? why would the secretary of state lay out a vision, a plan? i mean, does it really matter? >> it doesn't matter at this point. trump has made it clear he's going to disrupt the peace negotiations. he's going to do iraq a different way, syria and the rest of it. this administration coming in is so far to the right, it's unpredictable what it's going to do at this point. that abstaining on that res...

Basically said this is like a big middle finger. you see what's going on. it's getting deeper. israel is saying this idea that the white house is down playing everything. we hardly knew about this. they have evidence suggesting president obama directed this whole thing. >> well, silence is agreement and by the u.s. being silent and abstaining, they did agree to it and i think they helped orchestrate it. i think israel will release that information. it's going to be very embarrassing. let's back up and remember what this is all about. they are trying to push israel into accepting borders that w...