Saeb Erekat, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that the Palestinians suspended contacts with the CIA, after they announced the end of security coordination with Israel and the United States.
The move comes in protest of Israeli proposals to annex parts of the West Bank.
Erekat added in statements to him Thursday that Washington was informed of this step after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority was no longer bound by the agreements signed with Israel and the United States, including security coordination.
Regarding cooperation with the CIA, Erekat told reporters in a video call, "This (cooperation) stopped with the end of the (Palestinian) president's speech."
"Things are changing and we have decided that the time has now come for change," Erekat said, adding, "Security cooperation with the United States is no longer in place. Security coordination with Israel is no longer in place ... We will alone maintain security, public order, and the rule of law."
And intelligence cooperation with the CIA continued even after the Palestinians began boycotting US peace efforts led by President Donald Trump in 2017, as the two sides worked together to tackle violence in the occupied West Bank that is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.
Stop coordination
Earlier, a high-level security source in the Palestinian Authority told Al-Jazeera that the authority had officially informed Israel of stopping security coordination with it, in response to the plans of the occupation authorities to annex parts of the West Bank.
The source added that the Israeli side was informed through the Palestinian military link.
He also stressed that the Palestinian security services withdrew all the security patrols in the areas under joint administration with Israel, specifically in the occupied areas of North and East Jerusalem.
Palestinians fear that Israel, with Washington’s approval, will fulfill its obligations to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, which they consider annexing the territories.
Attitude and protest
A few days ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Organization had become free from all agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments, and from all their obligations, including security.
This position came in protest of the Israeli threats to annex parts of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
According to the second Oslo Agreement (in 1995), the Palestinian territories (in the occupied West Bank) were divided into three areas: A, B, and C.
Areas A represent 18% of the area of the West Bank, and are controlled by the Palestinian Authority, security and administrative. As for Areas B, they represent 21% of the area of the West Bank, and are subject to Israeli civil and security management.
Area C represents 61% of the area of the West Bank, and is subject to Israeli security and administrative control, which requires the approval of the occupation authorities on any Palestinian projects or measures in them.