AMMAN: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s drive to revive Middle East peace talks hit familiar warning signals Thursday as Israel’s prime minister stressed security needs and a Palestinian negotiator denounced Israeli settlement building.

 

Kerry, on his fifth visit to the region, met Jordan’s King Abdullah for talks focused on both the peace process and the Syrian civil war.

 

He later met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and was to return to Amman for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Friday.

 

Israeli settlement building on occupied land Palestinians seek for a state remains a main stumbling block to the resumption of peace talks that collapsed over the issue in 2010.

 

Kerry’s arrival in Amman Wednesday coincided with news Israel had approved 69 new housing units in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, while building continues elsewhere.

 

“Obviously steps like this are unhelpful, but we remain hopeful that both parties will recognize the opportunity and the necessity to go back to the table,” the State Department said.

 

“Settlement activity in and around occupied East Jerusalem is one of the main reasons why the two-state solution is disappearing, as without East Jerusalem there will be no Palestinian state,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

 

Netanyahu, professing his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, which he says must be demilitarized, has quietly frozen most housing starts in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

 

But in a speech Thursday, he appeared to put the United States on notice that he would stick to his security demands even at the risk of failed peace efforts should they resume.The prime minister said Israelis “do not want a bi-national state” – a reference to the possibility of Palestinians eventually vying for equal standing were Israel to merge with the West Bank.

 

But he said Israelis understood that security is a “fundamental condition for our existence.”

 

Netanyahu has called for an Israeli military presence along the eastern border of a Palestinian state, a demand opposed by Abbas.

 

Kerry has revealed few details of his strategy to bring the sides together. But he has said he wants to show progress before September, when the U.N. General Assembly resumes its debate over the Middle East.

 

In a possible trial balloon related to Kerry’s mission, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted a minister from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party as saying the prime minister knew a peace deal would mean giving up most of the West Bank.

 

“Netanyahu understands that for a peace agreement, it will be necessary to withdraw from more than 90 percent of the West Bank and evacuate more than a few settlements,” the minister said. “He knows this is one of the things that will be discussed.”