Kerry resumes Israel-Palestine peace mission

US secretary of state meets Israeli PM in a bid to break a three-year stalemate and restart direct negotiations. Last Modified: 28 Jun 2013 01:45

Kerry's bid to revive peace talks hit familiar warning signals as Israel stresses security needs and Palestinians denounce Israeli settlement building [Reuters]

US Secretary of State John Kerry met for nearly four hours into Friday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his latest bid to revive Middle East peace talks. On his fifth visit in as many months, Kerry met for dinner on Thursday with Netanyahu at a Jerusalem hotel before his motorcade drove back to Amman where he will meet for lunch on Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. All sides were careful in their public statements, but a US official said that Netanyahu and Kerry had "productive, in-depth and wide-ranging" talks. Kerry "reiterated his strong and sustained commitment to working with all parties to achieve two states, living side-by-side with peace and security," the US official said on condition of anonymity. Kerry, who met Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman before his brief trip to Jerusalem, is seeking to break a three-year stalemate and restart direct negotiations that would ultimately lead to an independent Palestinian state.