US Secretary of State John Kerry is a man on a mission. After taking office last year, he made six trips to the Middle East to kickstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Yesterday he met with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the progress made in the peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Mr. Kerry also said that he plans to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the immediate future.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Abbas met at the Ritz Carlton. They held a three hour private meeting -- their first direct talks since negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians began last month.
Last week, a senior Palestinian official said that the negotiations thus far had been "futile".
However, a State Department official on Sunday told the traveling press that the Palestinian official was "ignorant of what's happening in the negotiations".
"What they are saying is inaccurate and should not be taken as an indication of what actually happens in the negotiating room," he warned.
Mr. Kerry has also met with his Bahraini, Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari counterparts to involve the entire region in a solution.
