Kerry to fly back to Israel as Palestinians slam security proposals

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is to fly back to Israel just days after his last visit amid a Palestinian warning that his proposals on security would lead to "total failure," according to Agence France-Presse.

Kerry will head to Israel on Wednesday, December 11 five days after he landed back from Jerusalem and after spending most of the weekend meeting in Washington with Israeli leaders.

"This is an important time in the negotiations, and he felt it was important to return to the region," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington, adding that Kerry would spend two days in Israel and Ramallah for talks.

The announcement came after Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Monday said that Kerry's ideas on the future configuration of security arrangements which were presented to the Palestinian leadership last week, had provoked a "real crisis".

The proposals focus on security arrangements in the Jordan Valley which runs down the eastern flank of the West Bank, with commentators saying it would allow Israel to maintain a long-term military presence there.

The U.S. suggestions reportedly won a positive reaction from the Israelis, but were sharply dismissed by the Palestinians as "very bad ideas, which we cannot accept".

Israel has always insisted on maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley, but the notion has been rejected out of hand by the Palestinians who claim it would make a mockery of their sovereignty and merely perpetuate the occupation.

"(Kerry) only wants to win over the Israelis and (allow) settlement expansion at our expense," Abed Rabbo charged.

Psaki denied reports that Kerry and the administration of President Barack Obama were seeking some kind of interim framework ahead of a full peace accord.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli newspaper said that Washington was considering delaying the planned release of another 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners in a bid to pressure Ramallah into agreeing to its security proposals.