(JNS.org) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is disappointed in the conduct of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Sunday after Kerry departed Israel following his latest attempt to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Before taking off from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Kerry promised to return soon and announced that two of his aides would remain in Israel to work on bridging remaining differences that are preventing the resumption of negotiations. A senior Israeli diplomatic official said, “Most of the American pressure is directed at [Abbas] right now,” Israel Hayom reported.

Kerry, on his fifth trip to Israel since becoming Secretary of State in February, did not succeed in arranging a meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Abbas “presented to Kerry three conditions for the renewal of negotiations: the complete cessation of construction in Judea and Samaria, the release of all security prisoners who were arrested before the Oslo Accords and that talks on borders be based on the 1967 lines,” the Israeli official said. “All of these… are not acceptable to Netanyahu as conditions for the renewal of talks.”