BICOM

US Secretary of State John Kerry met separately yesterday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and presented them both with suggestions on security arrangements in the event of a peace agreement.

No significant breakthrough has been made since peace talks resumed in July and tensions between the two sides have increased in recent weeks. In an apparent attempt to progress the talks, Kerry yesterday presented new ideas on security arrangements under a peace accord. Following his meeting with Abbas, Kerry spoke in general terms, saying “there are questions of sovereignty, questions of respect and dignity which are obviously significant to the Palestinians, and for the Israelis very serious questions of security and also of longer-term issues of how we end this conflict once and for all.”

Channel Ten reported that Kerry’s suggestions included various land swaps, a cap on Palestinian refugees allowed to live in Israel and a partial ban on IDF presence within the future Palestinian state. Maariv claimed earlier this week that Kerry’s plan included arrangements in the Jordan Valley and that Jordan favours an Israeli presence there. However, Reuters reports that an unnamed Palestinian official said Kerry’s security ideas had been rejected by the PA “because they would only lead to prolonging and maintaining the occupation.”

Following his meeting with Kerry earlier in the day, Netanyahu said in a joint press conference that “Israel is ready for a historic peace.” He said it would be a peace based on two states for two peoples and “a peace that Israel must be able to defend itself, by itself, with our own forces against any foreseeable threats.” Kerry concurred that a peace deal would need to enable Israel to “defend itself by itself” and added that such an agreement would need to “recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” a step which the PA has refused to take. Kerry and Netanyahu are expected to meet again today.