After meeting Palestinian President Abbas, top US diplomat says Washington’s immediate priority is to defuse tensions.

The U.S. is under no illusion that tensions between Israel and Palestinians "can be diffused overnight," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken moves to the West Bank on Tuesday, a day after calling for a halt to escalating violence and reaffirming Washington's backing for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

STORY: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday in the midst of some of the worst violence in months between Israelis and Palestinians and called on both sides to tamp down the bitter tensions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank Tuesday with little to show for his renewed appeals for Israeli-Palestinian calm amid an alarming spike of violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders in the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Blinken’s visit comes just days after the Palestinian Authority ended its security coordination with Israel,

He conferred with Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads Israel's far-right government coalition ahead of talks Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.