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Mahmoud Abbas pledged to maintain US-Palestinian ‘security ties’

February 7, 2019 at 1:03 pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and US President Donald Trump shake hands before a meeting at the Palace Hotel during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly on 20 September, 2017, in New York [Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images]

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed in an interview yesterday that the PA will maintain its security ties with the United States, reported the Times of Israel.

The pledge comes despite the recent cessation of US State Department aid to PA security forces, a move requested by the PA in light of recent American legislation that render the PA vulnerable to lawsuits over alleged terrorism ties should it continue to receive American assistance.

“We still have a relationship with the [American] security services in order to fight terrorism in the world,” Abbas said in an interview with Sputnik, the Russian state-operated news site.

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Security aid to the tune of some $61 million per year was the last surviving element of US support for the PA, after a tranche of cuts by the Trump administration.

The PA maintains close “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation authorities.

Abbas reaffirmed this policy yesterday, “telling a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli activists that the West Bank government has a ‘joint agreement to fight terrorism’ with Israel and ‘will not violate it’ — because if it does, ‘nothing will remain’”, the Times of Israel reported.