Kerry: "Real progress," but no Israel-Palestine agreement Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, speaking separately after the meeting, agreed that "there is some progress, but we can't say there's a breakthrough" in the marathon shuttle diplomacy Kerry has conducted since Thursday with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported. Kerry was scheduled to speak at a news conference before departing here for a meeting with Asian foreign ministers in the Sultanate of Brunei, the next stop on the 13-day, eight-country tour he began last week. His three days of intensive, non-stop meetings with Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, and Abbas, first in Amman, Jordan and Sunday in Ramallah, were clearly the centerpiece of the trip. "We have had very positive discussions, very important discussions, for the last few days," Kerry said as he stood with Abbas outside the Palestinian leader's residence. We both feel good about the direction. But failure to achieve the goal of an agreement at least to begin direct talks about restarting the moribund peace process here was a setback. As aides scrambled to arrange impromptu logistics, Kerry postponed his Middle East departure, originally scheduled for Saturday night, and canceled a stop in the United Arab Emirates. A dinner Saturday night with Netanyahu - the third meeting with the Israeli prime minister - continued for six hours. When it ended at 3:30 a.m., Kerry and an aide walked quietly through the dark deserted streets of Jerusalem tailed by security personnel. Seven hours later, Kerry was in a car en route to Ramallah, about 45 minutes away. But despite wild speculation in the Palestinian press, repeated in unsourced Israeli media accounts, and optimistism expressed by the Kerry team, the mood outside their closed door meetings seemed to turn pessimistic by Saturday evening.