Kerry does not give up yet

John Kerry has not yet given up hope that after three years he can start a new round of peace talk between Israel and the Palestinians. After the Palestinians on Thursday voted down the formula for a restart (see the details in the post below) the  Secretary of State stubbornly travelled to Ramallah and spoke yet another time with the Palestinian president Abbas. No details of this talk were given. Burt later on Kerry gave a press conference at the Queen Alia airport of Amman, where he announced that the heads of the negotiation teams of Israel and the Palestinians - Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat - will travel to Washington next week in order to hold preliminary talks and discuss further details on the negotiations.Kerry said that an agreement about a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations had been reached. He added, however,  that details still had to be worked out, without giving details.
Reuters quoted  Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, who said that Kerry's "announcement did not mean the return to negotiations. It meant efforts would continue to secure the achievement of Palestinian demands ... Israel must recognize the 1967 borders."