Kerry says making progress towards Israeli-Palestinian framework deal

RAMALLAH, West Bank Sat Jan 4, 2014 10:49am EST

1 of 5. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talk at a meeting at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 4, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan Smialowski/Pool

(Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians are making progress towards reaching a framework peace agreement but they are not there yet, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Saturday.
Kerry spoke after about three hours of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the Palestinian seat of government in the West Bank.
"I am confident that the talks we have had in the last two days have already fleshed out and even resolved certain kinds of issues and presented new opportunities for others," he said.
Kerry is on his tenth trip to the region in the past year as he seeks to secure a peace deal. He was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem later on Saturday.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks brokered by the United States resumed last July after a three-year halt with Kerry leading mediation efforts to keep them going despite neither party expressing much hope for a successful outcome.
Kerry said he would fly to Jordan and to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet with the kings of each Arab nation to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed on July 29 with a target of reaching a final agreement within nine months.
Arab support is regarded as essential for the Palestinians to be able to make the compromises likely to be necessary to strike a peace deal with Israel.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)