Reports emerged on Sunday that Secretary of State John Kerry is set to present a framework agreement to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators designed to balance Palestinian demands for sovereignty with Israeli security requirements, amid revelations that direct peace talks were suspended after Palestinians rejected previous U.S. proposals for security arrangements along the Jordanian border:

On two visits earlier this month Kerry presented to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu security “ideas” based on the work that a team of some 160 US officials, headed by retired US Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, drew up defining what it thought would be necessary for Israel’s security if a Palestinian state were created.

Those ideas reportedly included an IDF presence in the Jordan Valley for an extended period, between 10 and 15 years.

Abbas, who rejected the proposal, sought the backing of the Arab League in an emergency meeting held on Saturday.

The Arab League also rejected the proposal, holding Israel responsible for “hindering” the peace talks with the Palestinians and calling to compel Israel to halt settlement construction.

Jerusalem has emphasized for years that it must be permitted to maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley to prevent destabilization and terrorist infiltration, a view reportedly endorsed by Jordan and codified in a recent bridging proposal presented by Kerry to Israeli and Palestinian diplomats.

The Palestinians publicly rejected Kerry’s proposal – describing it as marking the “total failure” of peace talks – and on Sunday chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat revealed that direct negotiations with Israel have been frozen. Erekat also told journalists that a framework agreement, rather than a final deal, is the best that can be hoped for by the end of the current nine-month period set for the talks.

[Photo: U.S. Department of State / Flickr ]