Report: CIA director secretly met Palestinian security leaders

Despite the PA threat to cut security ties with the U.S., the CIA director was assured that cooperation with her agency would continue.

By World Israel News Staff 

CIA director Gina Haspel secretly visited Ramallah, the headquarters city of the Palestinian Authority (PA), on Thursday, in the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump’s announcement of his peace plan, which has been rejected by the PA leadership, reports Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

In her meeting with senior Palestinian figures, Haspel was delivered a PA “threat” to cut “all security ties with Israel and the United States” in response to the Trump plan, according to the report.

The PA had already cut political ties with both countries.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has stated that he turned down multiple offers to speak by phone with the U.S. president about the peace plan.

Haspel did not meet with Abbas, says the Kan report. Instead, her most senior encounter was with the chief of the Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Services, Majed Faraj.

Despite the PA threat to cut security ties with the U.S., Haspel is said to have received an assurance from Faraj that cooperation between his intelligence services and the CIA would continue.

The public broadcaster’s report points out that Palestinian security cooperation with Israel is also continuing.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials have noted in the past that there is a common cause in preventing the Hamas terror organization from taking over control of Judea and Samaria.

Hamas overthrew the PA in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

According to Palestinian sources, Kan reports, Haspel also met with senior Israeli officials.