The president of Ramallah (Reuters) -Palestinian, President Mahmoud Abbas, appointed the close confidant Hussein Al -Sheikh as his assistant and probable successor on Saturday, said the Palestine liberation organization, a stage widely considered to be necessary to ensure international doubts about Palestinian leaders.
Abbas, 89, led the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of the veteran chief Yasser Arafat in 2004, but he resisted internal reforms for years, in particular the name of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a Fatah veteran, the main PLO faction that was founded by Arafat and is now led by Abbas. He is widely considered a pragmatist with very close ties with Israel.
He was appointed vice-president of the PLO after the organization's executive committee approved its appointment by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
The AP reform, which exerts limited autonomy in the West Bank occupied by the Israelis, was a priority for the United States and the Gulf Monarchies hoping that the body can play a central role in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The pressure towards the reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the main Palestinian rival of Plo Hamas fought Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the area crowded and crowded in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed AP governing Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are considered the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major body reforms.
Call the disarmament of Hamas
Israel's declared objective in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas, but it also excluded to give the AP a role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows an militant Islamist ideology, has checked Gaza since 2007, when it defeated the AP in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. He also has a great presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday which approved the post of vice -president without appointing a named person, Abbas appealed most of Hamas to disarm completely and to put his arms back – and to the responsibility of governing Gaza – AP.
Generalized corruption, the lack of progress towards an independent state and the increase in Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the popularity of the AP with many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since its training in the Oslo agreements with Israel in 1993 and he held the legislative elections last time in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-1989, worked as the main contact of the AP by ensuring the Israeli government under Abbas and was his envoy during visits to the world powers.
(Report by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; writing by Angus McDowalteding by Gareth Jones and Aidan Lewis)
