Abbas names new secretary for PLO’s executive committee

By Awad Rajoub
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a new secretary for the executive committee of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), according to a senior Fatah official on Thursday.

“Hussein al-Sheikh was named Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee,” Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of Abbas’ Fatah group, told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Sheikh, who is also a member of the PLO’s Central Committee and Fatah group, succeeds former chief negotiator and PLO secretary Saeb Erekat.

Erekat died of COVID-19 in November 2020 and his position has remained vacant since.

According to Abu Yousef, the PLO’s internal system stipulates the election of the secretary at a meeting of the organization’s executive committee.

However, he noted that Abbas has the right “to issue decisions regarding filling vacancies, on issues related to missions, until the matter is decided by the organization’s executive committee.”

Al-Sheikh was born in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1960.

He has appeared frequently in recent years alongside the Palestinian president when receiving political figures and delegations, and on his foreign tours.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar