Palestinians: Kerry ideas will cause ‘total failure’ of talks

U.S. proposals on security presented by Secretary of State John Kerry will lead to the “total failure” of peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official told AFP on Monday.

“These ideas will drive Kerry’s efforts to an impasse and to total failure because he is treating our issues with a high degree of indifference,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, referring to the U.S. diplomat’s proposals on future security arrangements in the Jordan Valley.

His remarks were made just days after Kerry’s latest visit to the region, which focused squarely on Israel’s security needs in any future peace deal.

Proposals laid out by Kerry and his security adviser General John Allen were reportedly welcomed by the Israelis but were coldly dismissed by the Palestinians, with one official describing them as “very bad ideas which we cannot accept.”

Commentators said the proposals would allow Israel to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley, which runs down the eastern flank of the West Bank, in a move completely rejected 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.