Kerry meets Abbas pushing ahead framework deal

RAMALLAH - US Secretary of State John Kerry started a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Friday evening in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where people demonstrated against his plan of framework deal with Israel.

Azzam el-Ahmad, an official in Abbas's Fatah Party, ruled out that the Palestinians would accept the framework agreement, which envisions the outlines of a broader agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the future.

"Kerry will end his tour without any progress or getting a Palestinian okay concerning his peace plan," el-Ahmad told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite news channel.

Since his arrival in the region late Thursday and until his departure to Amman Saturday, Kerry will be shuttling between Ramallah and Jerusalem, meeting Palestinian and Israeli officials. The two sides have completed two-thirds of the nine-month term that was set when the negotiations resumed in July.

The Palestinians said they have reservations on Kerry's security ideas, which they say adopt the Israeli vision and gives Israel sort of control between the West Bank and Jordan, the future eastern border of the Palestinian.

Earlier Friday, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in downtown Ramallah upon a call from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a PLO member, protesting Kerry's plan.

The demonstrators held Palestinian flags and banner condemning the security plan and the framework agreement as an attempt to " bypass international resolutions."

Ramzi Rabah, a DFLP official, called on Abbas to tell Kerry that the Palestinians reject any transitional, provisional or fragmental deals.

Police deployed to prevent the protesters from reaching the Palestinian presidency's headquarters.