In sign of progress, Kerry adds third meet with Abbas

JERUSALEM (AP) — US Secretary of State John Kerry, engaged in breakneck shuttle diplomacy to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into peace talks, will fly to the West Bank on Sunday to have a third meeting in as many days with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

US, Israeli and Palestinian officials have declined to disclose details of the past three days of closed-door meetings, but Kerry’s decision to fly from Jerusalem to Ramallah in the West Bank to see Abbas again before he leaves the region was an indication that the secretary believes there is a chance of bringing the two sides together.

US, Israeli and Palestinian officials have all declined to disclose details of the talks or say if progress has been made.

A US State Department official said Kerry was ready to meet with Abbas a third time on Sunday if the secretary thought it would be “useful” to the Mideast peace process. The US official was not authorized to discuss the negotiations by name and requested anonymity.

“Working hard” is all Kerry would say when a reporter asked him at a photo-op whether progress was being made. Still, there are several clues that the meetings have been more than routine chats.

Most of Kerry’s meetings have lasted at least two hours — his initial dinner meeting Thursday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clocked at four.

A meeting with Netanyahu in a hotel suite Saturday night took over six hours.

Legal, military and other officials, including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is charged with managing talks with the Palestinians, accompanied Netanyahu at the meeting, perhaps an indication that discussions had reached a more detailed level.

After the meeting broke up past 3 a.m., Kerry took a pre-dawn stroll in Jerusalem with senior advisers. Kerry, the sleeves on his white shirt rolled up his arms, walked with a security escort to a park near the hotel, gesturing and talking with his top advisers on the Mideast peace process.

A government minister close to the talks said the main issue holding up a breakthrough was the Palestinian’s demand that Israel freeze building over the Green Line, which Netanyahu refuses to agree to, according to a report in the Ynet news website.

The unscheduled visit to Ramallah will further squeeze Kerry’s already packed itinerary. The secretary had been scheduled to hold a press conference Sunday before leaving to attend a Southeast Asia security conference in Brunei. On the sidelines of the conference, Kerry is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an exchange that likely will focus on National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Kerry also is to have a trilateral discussion with Japanese and South Korean officials that likely will include the topic of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Kerry canceled a visit to Abu Dhabi on his two-week swing through Asia and the Mideast because of his extended discussions on the Mideast peace process in Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan. And just the sheer number of meetings Thursday, Friday and Saturday — three with Netanyahu and two with Abbas — could indicate that the two sides are at least interested in trying to find a way back to the negotiating table.

There is deep skepticism that Kerry can get the two sides to agree on a two-state solution. It’s something that has eluded presidents and diplomats for years. But the flurry of meetings has heightened expectations that the two sides can be persuaded to restart talks, which broke down in 2008, at the least.

Before Kerry’s meeting with Netanyahu, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said he didn’t think a breakthrough was in the works.

“I know the secretary is scheduled to meet with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu for the third time this evening, after meeting with [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas earlier in the day. But as far as I know, Abbas is still demanding the same preconditions, which we have no intentions of meeting,” Erdan told Channel 2′s “Meet the Press” on Saturday evening.

Erdan was commenting amid reports in Jordanian media that Kerry was about to announce a four-way summit between Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan, and the US, and the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

So far, there have been no public signs that the two sides are narrowing their differences.

In the past, Abbas has said he won’t negotiate unless Israel stops building settlements on war-won lands or accepts its 1967 lines as a starting point for border talks.

Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions for talks.

While details of the ongoing discussions have remained closely held, it has not quelled speculation over the possible summit.

“They’re saying a four-way summit, did you hear that?” Netanyahu asked Kerry during a photo-op before his latest meeting with Kerry.

“I did,” Kerry replied.

There is speculation both that talks are going well and that they’re headed nowhere.

Asked if the two sides were close to resuming negotiations, Erdan told Channel 2 TV: “Regrettably, so far, no.”