RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestine Liberation Organization named loyalists of Mahmud Abbas to top leadership posts on Monday, with Hussein Al-Sheikh appointed to the organization’s executive committee.
But no decision was made on naming a new PLO secretary general and chief negotiator with Israel, two key posts held by Saeb Erekat, who died in 2020 after contracting coronavirus.
At the end of the rare two-day meeting of the PLO’s central committee, officials said the roles would be filled at a later date.
Ahead of the meeting, analysts had said the 86-year-old Abbas, the PLO’s chairman, was seeking to elevate Sheikh, perhaps to position him as a favored successor to take charge as president of the Palestinian Authority.
Mohamed Mustafa, another Abbas supporter who chairs the Palestinian Investment Fund, was selected to take the executive committee seat vacated by Hanan Ashrawi, who resigned in 2020.
Abbas loyalist Rawhi Fattouh was elected chair of the Palestinian National Council — the PLO’s parliament in exile.
Analysts have said that support for the PLO, an organization founded in 1964 and charged with leading the battle for statehood against Israel, was growing increasingly unpopular among Palestinian people, amid frustration over its failures to hold open elections for key positions.
Addressing PLO executives on Sunday, Abbas pledged commitment to reform, calling it a “continuous process.”
But as the meeting started Sunday demonstrations calling for Abbas’s resignation were held in Ramallah and in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas Islamists.
Hamas is not part of the PLO, and has boycotted the organization over its decision to negotiate with Israel.