Palestine president’s party to hold congress ‘before the year ends’
Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas (left) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the Annual UN General Assembly on September 30, 2015 in New York. Mr Abbas' party aims to hold its first congress since 2009. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- While Abbas’ advisers insist the congress is being organised simply because it is overdue, some analysts see it as an opportunity for him to reshuffle key positions and sideline Dahlan allies.
RAMALLAH, PALESTINE
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party aims to hold its first congress since 2009 by the end of this year in what analysts have called a bid by the 81-year-old to stave off rivals.
The plan to hold the congress of the mainstream party he heads comes as Arab states have reportedly been pressuring Abbas to bring long-time rival Mohammed Dahlan back from exile in the United Arab Emirates.
While Abbas’ advisers insist the congress is being organised simply because it is overdue, some analysts see it as an opportunity for him to reshuffle key positions and sideline Dahlan allies.
A member of the Fatah central committee said the congress would take place “hopefully in November”.
It will be Fatah’s seventh since its formation.
The congress is to include elections for Fatah’s 23-member central committee, in which Abbas serves as president, and its 132-member revolutionary council.
The Arab Quartet — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE — has been pushing for Abbas to resolve issues with rivals in Fatah with a view towards a wider reconciliation between Palestinian factions.
Besides splits within the party, Abbas’ secular Fatah and the Islamist movement Hamas have been at loggerheads since the latter seized Gaza in a near civil war in 2007.
