Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas resigns… Again
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has once again threatened to resign from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, along with ten other committee members.
The PLO, which is based in Jordan, took receipt of the group’s protest on Saturday, and will now look to elect a new executive committee, if Abbas and colleagues go through with the threat.
Abbas, 80, has offered his resignation before, but this week’s move is believed to have been prompted by reports that Hamas is negotiating separately for a long-term truce with Israel.
The Gaza-based Islamist group’s unilateral initiative appears to be the final nail in the coffin of last year’s ‘unity government,’ announced between Hamas and Abbas’s secular faction, Fatah.
According to unverified reports, the embattled leadership of Hamas has sought an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in return for enforcing a truce. After last year’s hostilities, during which 18,000 homes were fully or partially destroyed, the coastal strip is in dire need of investment.
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