Hussein Al-Sheikh is a veteran leader of the Abbas Fatah Movement.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a close vice-president, said the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Hussein Al-Sheikh was appointed “assistant (vice-president) of the management of the PLO,” Wassel Abu Yousef, member of the OLP executive committee said on Saturday.
Abbas, 89, created the position of vice-president during the 32nd session of the Palestinian Central Council of Ramallah earlier this week.
During the session, Abbas reaffirmed his commitment to launching a “complete national dialogue”, which aims to hire “all Palestinian factions to reach reconciliation and strengthen national unit”, reported the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Abbas has also informed the commission of “future political efforts aimed at interrupting the Israeli aggression and the Genocide War in the Gaza Strip”.
These include guaranteeing the rapid entry of humanitarian and medical aid, full Palestinian governance on Gaza and putting pressure for total Israeli withdrawal from the enclave as “a step towards the launch of a political process to end the occupation and carry out an independent Palestinian State with Eastern Jerusalem as capital”, according to WAFA.
The appointment follows years of international pressure to reform the PLO and intervenes while the Arab and Western powers are considering an extended role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip.
Founded in 1964, the PLO is responsible for negotiating and signing international treaties on behalf of the Palestinian people, while the AP is responsible for governance in limited parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.
OLP is an umbrella organization including several Palestinian factions, but not the groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Sheikh, 64, is a veteran leader of the Abbas Fatah movement, which dominates the AP, and is considered close to the president.
Marwan Bishara, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Senior Policy Analyst, said the role of Sheikh in the AP included being “in charge of security coordination with the Israeli occupation”.
The sheikh was “cared for for 18 years in this relationship between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian authority and Israel,” added Bishara.
“Israel knows him and trusts him more than they know and trust Abbas himself. And Abbas, as we all know, has been the ultimate pragmatic / moderate leader in the Palestinian authority, to the pleasure of the United States and the European Union, even if it is not the pleasure of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin), Netanyahu and his ILK. “
Analyst Aref Jaffal said that the new role had been created to open the way for someone to take the reins of Abbas, “as there are many things that the Palestinian situation requires”.
“The Palestinian political system is already miserable, so I believe that all these arrangements are a prelude to the creation of a successor to Abbas,” Jaffal, director of the Al-Marsad electoral surveillance center, told AFP.
The OLP executive committee is expected to keep another meeting next Saturday to appoint a new secretary general.
