Israel rejects US proposals on Jordan Valley
by alethoMa'an - 05/01/2014
JERUSALEM
(AFP) -- Israel rejects any US-proposed security concessions for the
Jordan Valley, a cabinet member close to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said Sunday, as US Secretary John Kerry visited the Middle East.
"Security
must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan
Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or
technological means ... does not understand the Middle East,"
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israeli public radio.
Steinitz's
comments came after three days of intense shuttle diplomacy by Kerry,
who was trying to push a framework for final status talks between Israel
and the Palestinians.
With
a late April deadline looming for the negotiations that he kick-started
in July after a three-year hiatus, Kerry has pledged to work even more
intensively in the coming months.
US
officials have refused to release any details of the proposed
framework, and Kerry acknowledged it would not be agreed during this
trip.
Palestinian
hopes of having an international force brought in to help patrol the
Jordan Valley under a peace deal had been sidelined, a Palestinian
source told AFP Saturday.
Instead
the US was proposing a mixed Israeli-Palestinian military presence to
ensure security in the area, without setting a deadline when the Israeli
troops would be withdrawn.
But Israel insists on maintaining a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley.
Kerry
has said a peace treaty will deal with all the core issues dividing the
two sides. These include the contours of a future Palestinian state,
refugees, the fate of Jerusalem claimed by both as a capital, security,
and mutual recognition.
Direct
negotiations began in July between Israel and the Palestinians in a
US-led attempt to restart the deadlocked peace process.
Israel
has announced plans to build thousands of homes in illegal settlements
across the West Bank over the course of the talks, inhibiting US
efforts.
The
Palestinian negotiating team resigned in protest against continued
Israeli settlement construction in mid-November, dealing a major blow to
negotiations between Israel and the PLO that had already been stalled.
Negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told AFP
at the time that they resigned in response to "increasing settlement
building (by Israel) and the absence of any hope of achieving results,"
following Netanyahu's announcement that Israel would build 20,000 new
settlement homes in the West Bank.
The
internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West
Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli
military since 1967.
Ma'an staff contributed to this report.
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