Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints aide as PLO deputy

Hussein al-Sheikh is a veteran leader of Abbas’s Fatah movement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a close aide as vice president, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said.

Hussein al-Sheikh was named “deputy [vice president] of the PLO leadership,” Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, said on Saturday.

Abbas, 89, created the vice presidency position during the 32nd session of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah earlier this week.

During the session, Abbas reaffirmed his commitment to initiating a “comprehensive national dialogue”, which aims to engage “all Palestinian factions to achieve reconciliation and reinforce national unity,” the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas also informed the committee on “upcoming political efforts aimed at halting the ongoing Israeli aggression and war of genocide in the Gaza Strip”.

These include ensuring the rapid entry of humanitarian and medical aid, full Palestinian governance over Gaza and pushing for a total Israeli withdrawal from the enclave as “a step towards launching a political process to end the occupation and realize an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital”, according to WAFA.

The appointment follows years of international pressure to reform the PLO and comes as Arab and Western powers envision an expanded role for the Palestinian Authority (PA)