Kerry returning to Mideast with peace talks on agenda
US Secretary of State John Kerry will try to push Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks.
WASHINGTON, District of Columbia, July 15, 2013 (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry was returning to Jordan Monday on his sixth trip to the region as he tries to push Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks.
Kerry will leave Monday for Amman where he will meet a delegation from the Arab League and Jordanian leaders, a top US official said.
Since he took office on February 1, the US top diplomat has made a search for a long-elusive Middle East peace deal one of the top priorities of his tenure.
But US officials were quick to downplay hopes that his return to the region signalled that an announcement was pending on a resumption of the talks, which have stalled since September 2010.
They even could not immediately confirm whether he would meet with top Palestinian or Israeli leaders.
A Palestinian official told AFP that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet Kerry in Jordan.
"It is expected that (Palestinian) president Abbas and Kerry will meet in Amman," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We are waiting to see what new ideas Kerry will bring with him after his last tour of the region," he added.
But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the full details of the trip were not yet finalized.
"Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Amman, Jordan, departing this afternoon," Psaki told reporters.
He would meet on Wednesday with Jordanian leaders, including King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, as well as Arab League officials to "provide an update on Middle East peace," she said.
They would also discuss the political upheaval in Egypt and the conflict in Syria, and it was expected that Egypt, a key member of the Arab League, would send someone to the talks in Amman.
But another US official said it was not known who would represent the interim Egyptian government following the July 3 ouster of Mohamed Morsi.
Psaki downplayed expectations of any announcement of a resumption of talks, but she stressed: "The secretary would not be going back to the region if he did not feel there was an opportunity to keep making steps forward."
Last month the top US diplomat spent four days locked in intensive shuttle diplomacy seeking to coax the two sides to end a nearly three-year stalemate, and said "with a little more work, the start of final status negotiations could be within reach."
He left behind a team of top US officials who have been working to remove the last hurdles to fresh talks.
