Israel-Palestin committed to peace talks: John kerry

Jerusalem:, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israelis and Palestinians remained committed to peace talks and were on course to wrap up a full deal by April.
Speaking at the end of his second visit to the region in just a week, Kerry said that the two sides were discussing a framework for a final-status accord to resolve the core issues at the heart of the decades-old conflict.

“We’re not talking at this point about any shifts (in the schedule),” he said, dismissing bleak assessments from both sides on progress in the US-brokered negotiations, which resumed in July after a three-year pause.

Kerry said that his talks over the past two days, played out against a backdrop of fierce winter snow storms, had focused on security, with retired US General John Allen joining him for the discussions with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel says that its troops have to remain there to prevent arms and militants from entering the West Bank and launching attacks. Abbas has rejected the idea, but said that he would accept seeing US troops deployed along the border.

“We are working on an approach that both guarantees Israel’s security and fully respects Palestinian sovereignty,” Kerry said, without giving further details.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said after Kerry’s visit, “We want to achieve a peace based on Israel’s withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967.”

“We won’t accept limiting Palestinian sovereignty over our land,” Erekat added, in comments to a TV channel.

Palestinians also question whether Israel will press ahead with the third tranche of a planned release of Palestinian prisoners.

Seen as a vital confidence-building measure, Israel has so far freed about half the 104 prisoners it had pledged to let out of its jails under a deal secured by Washington in July. Kerry said that the third tranche would go ahead on December 29.

Kerry has made nine visits to the region since taking office in February in a relentless campaign to gain momentum and bridge a vast gulf of mutual mistrust.

“We remain hopeful that we can achieve that final-status agreement. Why? Because we are absolutely confident, that for both sides and the region at large, peace can bring enormous benefits,” Kerry said.

He left Israel later on Friday, bound for Vietnam and the Philippines.