AFP, Jerusalem
Washington's top diplomat was holding talks in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over an ambitious plan to destroy Syria's chemical arms, and peace talks with the Palestinians.
After landing near Tel Aviv at 8:25 GMT, US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Jerusalem where he went straight into talks with the Israeli leader, an AFP correspondent travelling with the delegation said.
He was expected to leave several hours later and fly to Paris.
Kerry's visit comes after Washington and Moscow reached a deal Saturday over eliminating Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons following three days of talks in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The State Department has confirmed Syria and the peace process would be on the agenda for Sunday's talks.
Ahead of their meeting, Netanyahu said he hoped the US-Russian accord would see a complete destruction of the Syrian regime's chemical weapons stockpile.
“We hope that the understandings that have been achieved between the US and Russia regarding Syria's chemical weapons will show results,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking 40 years since the Yom Kippur War.
“Indeed, these understandings will be tested by results: the full destruction of the stocks of chemical weapons that the Syrian regime has used against its own people,” he said, according to a transcript from his office.
“The test of results also applies to the international community's diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons,” he said of Tehran's disputed atomic programme which Israel and the West believe is an attempt to build a weapons capability.
“Here as well, it is not words that will be decisive, but rather actions and results,” he said.
Media reports said Kerry's talks would touch on the consequences for Israel of the Geneva agreement which gives Damascus a week to hand over details of its chemical arms stockpile in order to avoid sanctions and possible US-led military action.
Although Israel's main newspapers hailed news of the agreement, some commentators raised the question of Washington leaning on Israel to ratify the international treaty banning the use of chemical weapons.
“Kerry may tell Netanyahu the United States is working to remove one of the gravest threats on Israel's security, by combining a credible military threat with creative diplomacy,’’ wrote Barak Ravid, diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz newspaper.
"Now, Kerry may say, the US needs Israel's help by ratifying the treaty prohibiting the use of chemical weapons."
Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, but never ratified it, despite demands to do so from Washington and Moscow.
"Only when current Middle East becomes a completely new Middle East will we be able to sign on such a treaty," former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told army radio on Sunday, ruling out any such move at present.
On Friday, the State Department confirmed Syria would be on the agenda at Kerry's Jerusalem talks as well as the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians.
The two men would discuss “the final status negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians” after Kerry's meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in London on September 9, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
After becoming secretary of state in February, Kerry visited the region six times in four months in a bid to revive direct talks which last took place in September 2010 before running aground over the issue of settlements.
His efforts led to a series of key meetings in Washington on July 29 and 30 between Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, which triggered a formal resumption of talks in Jerusalem on August 14.
Despite the talks, the State Department has said it is too early to talk about a trilateral meeting.