Israel and the Palestinians held last-ditch talks with a US envoy Sunday on salvaging their teetering peace talks, after the Jewish state threatened to take retaliatory measures. Warning that the peace process was on the edge of collapse, an Israeli official close to the talks said that even US Secretary of State John Kerry, its tireless sponsor, was cooling off.
"The way it's looking now, the talks as they were several weeks ago are no longer relevant," the source told Israeli news website Ynet. "Israel is preparing to return to routine dealings with the Palestinians as they were before the negotiations started nine months ago," he said. "We are noticing a real coolness in the way the Americans are treating (the peace process), and it's obvious that today's Kerry is not the same Kerry from a few weeks ago," the official said.