The shuttle diplomacy meetings held by US Secretary of State John Kerry at the end of June in Jerusalem, Amman, Ramallah and then back to Jerusalem, may not have produced any visible successes or achievements pertaining to the issues stalling the resumption of negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas merely described them as “useful”; behind the scenes, politicians and pundits with knowledge about the meetings thought that a return to negotiations would predominantly come through a release-of-prisoners deal and the bolstering of economic activity between the two sides in Area C of the West Bank, instead of through a freeze in the building of settlements.