John Kerry To Push for Peace Talks in the West Bank

Breakthrough still left wanting

(Reuters)—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was due to travel to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, U.S. and Palestinian officials said, in a last-ditch effort to clinch a renewal of peace talks with Israel.

Kerry met Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman on Friday and had been consulting Israeli officials by telephone, a U.S. official said, but did not say if a breakthrough was near.

A State Department official in Amman said Kerry would go to Ramallah in the afternoon to see Abbas, but did not disclose his proposals to revive peace talks that broke down in 2010.