Secretary of State John Kerry returned to the occupied Palestinian territories for the 11th time this year

Secretary of State John Kerry returned to the occupied Palestinian territories for the 11th time this year, this time going directly to Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in what appears to be an effort to soften him to US security ideas presented last week to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Kerry was accompanied to the meeting by Marine Corps Gen. (ret.) John Allen, head of a 160-strong US defense and intelligence team that has drawn up a plan for the day after an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Allen briefed Netanyahu on the plan last week when he was here with Kerry, and this will be his first meeting with Abbas.

The Palestinians have come out against the plan, which is believed to include an Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley for an extended period.

Abbas told Sky News Arabia Television on Thursday that he would not accept a single Israeli soldier on Palestinian territory. “If America wants to protect the security of Israel, they can go there [to the Jordan Valley], but we will not accept Israel being there,” he said.

A PA official in Ramallah said that Abbas would reiterate during his meeting with Kerry his opposition to the recent US security ideas. The official claimed that Kerry has been exerting enormous pressure on Abbas to accept the US security proposals.