Secretary of State John Kerry has often spoken with some degree of optimism about the chance for peace between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East. Wednesday, however, in remarks after a meeting with European Union representative Federica Mogherini in Belgium, Kerry acknowledged that the Mideast peace process “may at this particular moment be a misnomer.”

Kerry made the statement as he ran down the list of items that he and Mogherini had addressed during their working lunch, among them Libya, the Islamic State (ISIL/Daesh), Russia and Ukraine: