Fatah Central Committee has urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to name the prime minister “as soon as possible”, in order to announce the Cabinet formation before the end of February.
Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the committee specifically requested that one of its members be named the new premier, leaving the choice to the president, however, noting that Mohammad Shtayyeh's name was the most talked-about in political deliberations.
Shtayyeh is a Central Committee member, a former minister, negotiator and head of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR). The committee’s recommendation came at a meeting on Monday.
Fatah’s keenness on the formation of a new government that would meet its specifications is seen as an attempt to regain its role in the government’s leadership, after being deprived of it since 2007; in light of foreign and internal complexities facing the Palestinian issue.
Members of the committee discussed during the meeting external challenges, mainly the confrontation with Israel and the United States, and the stumbling internal reconciliation.
Underlining commitment to Palestinian national principles, including the issue of Jerusalem, the committee rejected all “suspicious plans, including the so-called US deal of the century,” which it said were aimed at “ending our national cause by separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and abolishing our people’s legitimate rights to freedom and independence and the establishment of our independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.”
The committee also called on the international community to intervene to stop Israeli intransigence and its refusal to abide by bilateral agreements signed under international auspices.
As for the file of national reconciliation, the central committee accused Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements of obstructing the opportunity to reach understandings in the Moscow talks.
