* Kerry on his fourth visit to try to revive peace talks
* Netanyahu says Israel wants to restart negotiations
By Arshad Mohammed
JERUSALEM, May 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry began a round of separate talks with Israeli and
Palestinian officials on Thursday but acknowledged there was
considerable scepticism that the two sides would resume peace
negotiations.
Kerry has now visited Israel four times in his four months
in office to try to restart peace talks.
The negotiations broke down in late 2010 in a dispute over
Israeli building of Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank
land that the Palestinians want for a state.
“I know this region well enough to know that there is
scepticism, in some quarters there is cynicism and there are
reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment,”
Kerry said as he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
posed for pictures.
“It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient,
but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay out a path ahead
that can conceivably surprise people but certainly exhaust the
possibilities of peace.”
Kerry will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in
the day.
Netanyahu said he wanted to restart 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,” Netanyahu said.
Last week, Kerry telephoned Netanyahu to voice U.S. concern
at Israel’s plan to declare legal four unauthorised West Bank
settler outposts.
Most of the world deems all Israeli settlements in the West
Bank as illegal. Israel, which captured the land in the 1967
Middle East War, disputes this and distinguishes between about
120 government-authorised settlements and dozens of outposts
built by settlers without official sanction.
The main issues that would have to be resolved in a peace
agreement include the borders between Israel and a Palestinian
state, the future of Jewish settlements, the fate of Palestinian
refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
In his visits to the region, Kerry is also trying to put
together an economic package for the Palestinians to go
alongside the U.S. political initiative.
European diplomats, in meetings with Palestinian leaders,
have been trying to steer them away from any notion the European
Union might present a peace plan of its own. British Foreign
Secretary of William Hague was also due to hold talks with
Netanyahu and Abbas later in the day.
(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Crispian Balmer, Editing by
Jeffrey Heller and Angus MacSwan)
