'Shin Bet chief met Abbas to update him on Hamas plot to topple PA'

According to "Al-Akhbar," Abbas warned Cohen that PA would halt security cooperation with Israel if Jerusalem refuses to begin talks on border of future Palestinian state.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Yoram Cohen and Abu Mazen (photo credit: REUTERS,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yoram Cohen and Abu Mazen
(photo credit: REUTERS,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last month to update him on the arrest of Hamas operatives who had planned to topple his government, according to Israel Radio.
Palestinian sources confirmed to Israel Radio numerous reports in Arab media that the meeting between Abbas and Yoram Cohen did in fact take place.
The Cohan-Abbas meeting was first reported by the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.
The report also included the summation of Abbas’ meeting in Qatar with Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal just a few days before the Gaza cease-fire went into effect.
According to Al-Akhbar, Abbas said that the PA would halt its security cooperation with Israel in the event that Jerusalem refuses to begin talks on the contours of a future Palestinian state. Abbas warned that the continued stalemate in peace talks would prompt the Ramallah administration to dissolve itself and hand day-to-day responsibility over the West Bank to the Israeli government.
Abbas relayed a similar message to Cohen, according to the report.
Last month, the Shin Bet said a large-scale Hamas terrorist formation in the West Bank and Jerusalem planned to destabilize the region through a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel and then topple the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority.
The Shin Bet announcement was a follow to The Jerusalem Post first exclusively breaking the story regarding the busting and indicting of Hamas's West Bank leader, dozens of his operatives and a massive plot to recreate Hamas's West Bank infrastructure on August 7.
The plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey and centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the Shin Bet added.
The end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability to carry out a military coup, overthrowing Abbas’ government.