Top PA officials met with Lieberman weeks before his resignation

Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Al-Sheikh yesterday confirmed reports that he had met former Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman two weeks before his resignation, Quds Press reported.

In a statement, Al-Sheikh said Chief of PA Intelligence Services Majed Faraj joined the meeting and they discussed with Lieberman the decisions of the PLO’s Central Committee to halt security cooperation with occupation forces if it did not commit to former agreements.

On Monday, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) revealed that the meeting had taken place. Azzam Al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah leader, confirmed the meeting on Monday to the Times of Israel and claimed that the Palestinian sides planned to discuss modifying the Paris Economic Protocol.

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Kan reported Palestinian officials saying that Lieberman told the PA officials he was not like Netanyahu, he did not agree with him about everything.

Al-Sheikh adde that they discussed the Israeli violations of previous agreements signed with the PLO and PA, mainly in Jerusalem and regarding settlement expansion and daily raids on Palestinian areas.

This meeting came in spite of the remarks made by the PA and PLO officials in different occasions that security cooperation with Israel was halted.

Lieberman resigned on 14 November following a disagreement over the recently-signed ceasefire with Gaza.