Israel on Sunday rejected any security concessions for the valley under a "framework agreement" that US secretary of state John Kerry is trying to secure for a Israel-Palestinian deal on core issues, including security and borders.
"The Jordan Valley is not essential to Israel's security because the country is not facing a threat from the east," former spy agency chief Meir Dagan was quoted as saying by Ma'ariv newspaper days after a ministerial panel supported legislation to annex Israeli settlements in the valley bordering Jordan.
"I have no problem with the political demand that the valley should be part of the state of Israel," he reportedly said in a lecture at a cafe last week.
"Such a position is permissible. What bothers me is that it's being depicted as some kind of security problem. There is no Iraqi army, there is no eastern front. There's peace with Jordan. I don't like the talk that the valley is essential to Israel's security."
The decorated spy emphasised that citing security reasons for retaining the Jordan Valley amounted to "manipulation".
The valley's fate is one of the major issues during intensive talks between Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of ongoing peace process.
Kerry, whose shuttle diplomacy broke a three-year hiatus in direct talks in July, is on his tenth visit to the region to finalise the "framework agreement" to guide negotiations towards a lasting peace deal by April, when a nine-month deadline would end.
The guidelines for the agreement are expected to contain formulae for core issues like Palestinian refugees, border, security and Jerusalem, which is claimed by both sides as their capital.
According to reports, a new US-proposed security plan calls for Israel to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley for 10 years as part of a future peace deal.
But the Palestinians have vehemently opposed such plans as an encroachment on their sovereignty and demanded an international force be stationed in the valley to guarantee security.
"Security must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or technological means...does not understand the Middle East," Israel's intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz told public radio.
The Israeli premier earlier this week warned his party's ministers against voting for a bill to annex Jordan Valley settlements, saying such a move could be perceived as provocative and might harm Israel's interests.
Paying no heed to his pleas, all Likud ministers in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation supported such a bill hours after his appeal.
Israeli ministers and Knesset members also attended dedication ceremony of a new neighbourhood in the valley sending the message that "our presence here in the Jordan Valley is not a temporary one," said interior minister Gideon Sa'ar, considered number 2 in Netanyahu's government.
"The Jordan Valley is Israeli and the Jordan Valley will stay Israeli. Our eastern border must be the Jordan River," Sa'ar said adding, that if Israel didn't keep control of the area, the Jewish state will lack 'strategic depth' necessary for its survival.
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