AMMAN — CIA chief Bill Burns has
expressed fears of a third Palestinian Intifada, in light of rising tension in
the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, an Israeli media outlet reported on
Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
“I was a senior US diplomat 20 years ago
during the Second Intifada, and I’m concerned — as are my colleagues in the
intelligence community — that a lot of what we’re seeing today has a very
unhappy resemblance to some of those realities that we saw then too,” Bill
Burns said during a live interview at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service
in Washington last Thursday.
Burns, who visited the occupied
Palestinian Territories two weeks ago, said that his talks with Israeli and
Palestinian leaders sparked his concerns about "more vulnerability and
greater violence" between the two sides.
The White House delegation had arrived in
the occupied territories when tensions were flaring between the Israeli army
and the Palestinian resistance in the wake of a massacre of Palestinians by
Israeli forces in Jenin.
Burns commented that the situation was
“beginning to resemble” the violence of the Second Intifada, according to the
Times of Israel.
Burns commented that the situation was “beginning to resemble” the violence of the Second Intifada
“Part of the responsibility of my agency
is to work as closely as we can with both the Palestinian security services and
the Israeli security services to prevent the kind of explosions of violence
that we’ve seen in recent weeks. That’s going to be a big challenge, and I’m
concerned about that dimension of the landscape in the Middle East as well,” he
added.
EscalationsOn January 26, Israeli occupation forces
raided the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine Palestinians. The Palestinian
Authority responded by announcing the severing of its security ties with
Israel, although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later told Burns ties were
only partially cut, according to the Times of Israel.
The next day, a 21-year-old Palestinian
resident of east Jerusalem opened fire outside a synagogue, killing eight
settlers.
Occupation forces have responded with
almost nightly raids, making over 2,500 arrests and killing more Palestinians.
Steps
towards securityUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken met
with Abbas on January 31, encouraging Ramallah to adopt a plan aimed at boosting
the PA’s security presence in the northern West Bank, where clashes between
Israeli forces and Palestinians has grown increasingly deadly, two US and
Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel.
Commenting Monday on Burns’ remarks, US
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the CIA director’s concern “is
precisely the reason Secretary Blinken from Israel, from the West Bank, from
Egypt, encouraged Israelis, Palestinians to take urgent steps themselves that
would de-escalate this situation and lead to greater degrees of security and
stability for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
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