Report:

US Spy Chief Secretly Visited Ramallah After 'Peace Plot' Bid

CIA Director Gina Haspel reportedly paid a secret visit to occupied Palestinian city of Ramallah just a day after US President Donald Trump announced his so-called “peace plan” which was resoundingly rejected by all Palestinian factions.

News ID: 448816

Date: 03 February 2020 - 10:54

RNA - During the covert visit on Thursday, the US spy chief met with “senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials”, who have reiterated the plans to cut all security ties with Washington and the Tel Aviv regime, Israeli news outlets reported on Saturday.

According to the Israeli media reports, Haspel did not get to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during the visit, but held talks with PA’s Intelligence Director Majid Faraj and its minister in charge of Palestinian-Israeli interrelations, Hossein al-Sheikh, to relay the message that the annexation of the Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied territories would not take effect prior to the March 2 elections by the regime.

The American spy chief further relayed the same message to the Tel Aviv regime though the Israeli media reports did not say whether she also held talks with Israeli officials during her short visit.

The reports came as Abbas announced during an Arab League summit in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Saturday that PA will no longer recognize ties with the Israeli regime and Washington after the Trump administration revealed its controversial and openly pro-Israel plot in a purported bid to resolve the age-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The US had announced the so-called "Deal of the Century" — a brainchild of Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and other key pro-Israeli figures — years ago, but had withheld the details.

Trump revealed the general provisions of the scheme on Tuesday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. Palestinian sides were conspicuous by their absence at the ceremony given their vociferous disagreement with the plot.

Under the scheme, the US would continue to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “undivided capital”, Trump stated, endorsing his 2017 move concerning the holy city.

According to Fars News Agency, he added that the deal featured an economic portion that earmarks $50 billion in monetary allocations to Palestinians, Jordan, and Egypt.

Palestinians have denounced this as a means of bribing them into selling their rights.

Still contentiously, Trump said that the Israeli settlers, who have been housed in illegal apartment blocks since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, would not be moved under the deal — something that amounts to annexation of the land on which the settlements have been built.

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