John Kerry reaches out in effort to restart Middle East peace talks

United States secretary of state John Kerry is pushing ahead with efforts to resume Middle East peace talks despite no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Yesterday he met Israeli and Palestinian leaders separately. It is his fourth trip to the region since embarking on a round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at restarting direct peace negotiations that were broken off in late 2010.

Ahead of his meeting in Jerusalem with prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Mr Kerry sounded an optimistic note, while recognising the scepticism and cynicism prevalent in the region.

“There have been bitter years of disappointment. It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient – but detailed and tenacious – that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities of peace.”

Economic development plans
Mr Netanyahu said Israel wanted, above all, to restart the peace talks with the Palestinians. "It's something I hope the Palestinians want as well and we ought to be successful for a simple reason: when there's a will, we'll find a way."

A US official said Mr Kerry outlined to the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, during the meeting in Ramallah some of the economic development plans he has for the West Bank, but stressed that these would be parallel to, not instead of, negotiations towards a separate, independent Palestinian state.

Palestinian officials have also expressed a desire to restart peace talks. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the diplomatic impasse hurts Palestinians most, and no one has more to benefit from a resumption of talks than Palestinians. However, the Palestinians are reluctant to resume negotiations while Israel continues with settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jewish neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem.

Last week Mr Kerry telephoned Mr Netanyahu to voice US displeasure over Israeli plans to declare legal four illegal West Bank settler outposts.

However, Mr Netanyahu is unwilling to declare another settlement building freeze and maintains that direct peace talks should resume without conditions.

A Palestinian Authority source told Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam negotiations were unlikely to resume, since Mr Kerry failed to persuade Mr Netanyahu to cease settlement construction or agree that the 1967 border between Israel and the West Bank will serve as a basis for negotiations for a future Palestinian state.

Peace efforts
Israel's chief peace negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said Israel and the Palestinians must push forward with peace efforts and that the next few days could be critical to Mr Kerry's effort.

“The Palestinian issue isn’t something that will disappear and it is not an issue where someone can say, ‘There are more worrying things, so let’s not deal with it,’” she said.

However, her close adviser on Palestinian issues, foreign ministry official Tal Becker, said he does not believe a peace agreement with the Palestinians will be possible within the next several years, because Mr Abbas is “not enthusiastic about returning to talks” and is “unwilling to pay the political price” for entering into serious negotiations with Israel.