U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry smiles during a joint news conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo (unseen) at the Foreign Ministry in Madrid, Spain, October 19, 2015. REUTERS/Andrea Comas

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday held out the possibility that he may meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Middle East rather than in Germany as previously planned.

“I will be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu either in Germany or in the region,” Kerry said during a question and answer session after making a speech on climate change.

Kerry’s planned separate talks with Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah aim to reduce violence stirred in part by Palestinian anger over what they see as Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s most sacred site outside Saudi Arabia and also one revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical temples.