JERUSALEM -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kept up a frenetic pace of shuttle diplomacy Saturday to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into peace talks. America's top diplomat was prepared to meet a third time in as many days with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas even if it could delay Kerry's arrival at an Asian conference.
U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials have all declined to disclose details of the talks.
"Working hard" is all Kerry would say when a reporter asked him at a photo-op whether progress was being made. Still, there are several clues that the meetings have been more than routine chats.
Most of Kerry's meetings have lasted at least two hours -- his initial dinner meeting Thursday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clocked at four. Legal, military and other officials accompanied Netanyahu at his meeting with Kerry in a hotel suite Saturday night, perhaps an indication that discussions had reached a more detailed level.
Kerry cancelled a visit to Abu Dhabi on his two-week swing through Asia and the Mideast because of his extended discussions on the Mideast peace process in Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan. And just the sheer number of meetings Thursday, Friday and Saturday -- three with Netanyahu and two with Abbas -- could indicate that the two sides are at least interested in trying to find a way back to the negotiating table.
A U.S. State Department official said Kerry was ready to meet with Abbas a third time on Sunday if the secretary thought it would be "useful" to the Mideast peace process. The U.S. official was not authorized to discuss the negotiations by name and requested anonymity.
Meeting Abbas on Sunday, however, might further squeeze Kerry's itinerary. He's scheduled to be at a Southeast Asia security conference on Monday and Tuesday in Brunei -- some 5,400 miles from Israel. On the sidelines of the conference, Kerry is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an exchange that likely will focus on National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Kerry also is to have a trilateral discussion with Japanese and South Korean officials that likely will include the topic of North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
For now, however, Kerry has his head in the Middle East. Except for quick flights to meetings in Amman, Kerry mostly has been holed up on the upper floors of a hotel near Jerusalem's Old City engaged in deep, serious conversations about the decades-old conflict. On other floors, the hotel has been hosting large family gatherings, and noisy children in party clothes have been running up and down the hallways, oblivious to Kerry's presence.
There is deep skepticism that Kerry can get the two sides to agree on a two-state solution. It's something that has eluded presidents and diplomats for years. But the flurry of meetings has heightened expectations that the two sides can be persuaded to restart talks, which broke down in 2008, at the least.
So far, there have been no public signs that the two sides are narrowing their differences.
In the past, Abbas has said he won't negotiate unless Israel stops building settlements on war-won lands or accepts its 1967 lines -- before the capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in a Mideast war that year -- as a starting point for border talks. The Palestinians claim all three areas for their future state.
Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions for talks.
Abbas made significant progress with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in talks in 2007 and 2008, but believes there is little point in negotiating with the current Israeli leader.
Netanyahu has adopted much tougher starting positions than Olmert, refusing to recognize Israel's pre-1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and saying east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, is off the table. Abbas and his aides suspect Netanyahu wants to resume talks for the sake of negotiating and creating a diplomatic shield for Israel, not in order to reach an agreement.
Abbas has much to lose domestically if he drops his demands that Netanyahu either freeze settlement building or recognize the 1967 frontier as a starting point before talks can resume. Netanyahu has rejected both demands. A majority of Palestinians, disappointed after 20 years of fruitless negotiations with Israel, opposes a return to talks on Netanyahu's terms.
While details of the ongoing discussions have remained closely held, it has not quelled speculation. Midday Saturday, news reports said a four-way meeting was going to be held in coming days with the U.S. Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians at the table.
"They're saying a four-way summit, did you hear that?" Netanyahu asked Kerry during a photo-op before his latest meeting with Kerry.
"I did," Kerry replied.
There is speculation that talks are going well and that they're headed nowhere.
Asked if the two sides were close to resuming negotiations, Israeli Cabinet Minister Gilad Erdan told Channel 2 TV: "Regrettably, so far, no."
Associated Press writer Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
