Palestinians ‘suspend contacts with CIA’ after ending security coordination with US and Israel

The Palestinians have suspended communications with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after announcing an end to security coordination with Israel and the United States, a Palestinian official said on Thursday. The move comes in protest at Israeli proposals to annex territory in the West Bank, according to Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The official said Washington had been informed of the decision after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday his administration was no longer committed to agreements with Israel and the US, including on security coordination.

Speaking about cooperation with the CIA, Erekat told reporters in a video call that “it stopped as of the end of the (Palestinian) president’s speech.”

Intelligence cooperation with the CIA continued even after the Palestinians began boycotting US peace proposals led by President Donald Trump in 2017, with the sides working together to head off violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based, Reuters reported.