Qatar to Kerry: Push 'instransigent' Israel to restart talks

Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Attiya tells US Secretary of State John Kerry that aside from the crises in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, “the Middle East is suffering from the failures of the peace process due to the Israeli occupation” of Palestinian land.

Attiya accuses Israel of “intransigence” in dealing with the Palestinians and says it must end its “illegal blockade of Gaza.”

“We call on the United States of America to exert more efforts to go back to the peace process,” he says.

Kerry is meeting Gulf foreign ministers in Qatar in an effort to reassure them on the recently agreed Iran nuclear deal.

— AP