‘We may halt security cooperation with Israel,’ warns Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas warned on Wednesday that he “may halt security cooperation with Israel” if its settlement policy continues, Arabs48.com has reported. Speaking to the French senate in Paris, the Palestinian Authority president said that halting security cooperation could be the only option in the face of illegal settlement expansion.

On Tuesday, Abbas met with French President François Hollande, who expressed his concerns about the latest Israeli law that legalised retroactively the theft of private Palestinian land in the occupied Palestinian territories.

MEMO Report: Palestinian security cooperation with Israel

Meanwhile, the PA leader thanked the EU after it had announced its rejection of the Israeli settlement law and sent a thank you message to the EU foreign policy chief. The EU position is “unprecedented,” he told Federica Mogherini, adding that the Israeli law undermines the international efforts being exerted to make peace, as well as the two-state solution.

Abbas also expressed his wish to work with the EU to implement the UN Security Council resolution 2334 in order to keep the possibility of a just and comprehensive peace alive.

A similar message of thanks was sent to Pope Francis in the Vatican in respect of the statement by the Council of Catholic Bishops of the United States, which called on the Trump administration not to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.