Abbas to Kerry: Israel goodwill gestures insufficient for restarting peace talks

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Friday that the Israeli goodwill gestures were insufficient to resume peace talks, a Palestinian official told Xinhua. Abbas said during their meeting in Amman, Jordan, that Israel must freeze settlement building and adopt a two-state solution with pre-1967 lines as the borders of the future Palestinian state before resuming the negotiations, the official said on the condition of anonymity. "What Israel offers in terms of releasing a limited number of prisoners and increasing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)' s influence in the West Bank is not enough for President Abbas to accept returning to the negotiating table," the official added. Kerry, who has been trying to revive the peace talks between Israeli and Palestinians since March, has not made any breakthrough, the official added. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Abbas and Kerry met for two hours to discuss the latter's Mideast efforts. Kerry is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday night in Jerusalem. The peace talks between the two sides stopped in 2010 over a dispute on the Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.