(January 31, 2023 / JNS) Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas told CIA Director William Burns in Ramallah on Sunday that security cooperation with Israel will be restored, Channel 12 reported on Monday.
Abbas announced on Jan. 26 that the P.A. would cease security cooperation following an IDF raid in Jenin in which nine people were killed during fierce clashes.
In his meeting with Burns, Abbas relayed a four-part message, according to the report: 1) Intelligence cooperation with Israel continues; 2) The P.A. will continue to work to prevent acts of terror; 3) Security cooperation with Israel will be renewed to calm tensions; and 4) that he cannot condemn the recent attacks in Jerusalem as doing so would be “political suicide.”
The P.A. chairman is expected to repeat this message to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in their meeting on Tuesday, according to the report. (Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.)
During their meeting on Sunday, Abbas briefed Burns on the “dangerous developments and the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, and the importance of urgent intervention to pressure the Israeli occupation government to stop its unilateral measures and to abide by the signed agreements,” according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
The P.A. head further “stressed the necessity of restoring the political horizon on the basis of international legitimacy, in order to achieve security and stability for all in the region, and for the Palestinian people to achieve their freedom and independence in their state with [eastern] Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.”
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