REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM -- After four days of intense diplomacy, US Secretary of State John Kerry headed home Monday, insisting progress had been made despite failing to agree a framework to guide Israeli-Palestinian talks.
On his 10th visit to the region as US top diplomat, Kerry spent hours locked in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
He also made a surprise day trip to key Arab allies, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
With the US remaining tight-lipped about the details, little news has filtered out about Kerry's proposals to bridge the huge gaps between the two sides as they seek to draw up the contours of two states living side by side.
According to a report in Israeli daily Maariv, Kerry pressed Netanyahu to agree to a formula which would enable the return of some Palestinian refugees, who fled or were expelled from Israel when the Jewish state was created in 1948.
Netanyahu refused, Maariv said. According to the newspaper, Israeli negotiators also wish to extend talks beyond their agreed April deadline to January 2015, in return for freezing some settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Jordan and Saudi Arabia will be key to any deal.
Jordan's historic role in the guardianship of Muslim sites in Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem is recognised under its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Saudi Arabia authored a 2002 peace plan which is the basis of Arab aspirations for any deal.
Kerry emerged from talks at the secluded desert residence of Saudi King Abdullah late Sunday to say he had won the support of the influential Arab leader.
Kerry, who has made a Middle East peace deal a personal quest since taking office in February, is due to meet this week with top members of the Arab League to brief them on his discussions in Israel and the West Bank.
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