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Fatah appoints Abbas overall head of movement
A key Fatah body elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday as overall leader, officials said, in a bid to revitalise the movement hit by the election success earlier this year of rival group Hamas. Fatahs Revolutionary Council, a key decision-making body within the faction, voted in the West Bank city of Ramallah in favour of appointing Abbas as overall commander. This is the same position that leader Yasser Arafat held before his death in 2004, officials said, placing Abbas at odds with members of the old guard. Farouk Kaddoumi, an exiled hardliner living in Tunis, was elected Fatahs secretary general but not overall head of the faction after Arafats death, they added. This (decision) strengthens Abu Mazens political and reform programme within Fatah, said senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, referring to Abbass nickname. This gives him powers in the Central Committee (the factions governing body) of which he is a member and strengthens Fatah, he added. There was no immediate comment from Kaddoumi on the decision. Kaddoumi, considered pro-Syrian and co-founded Fatah with Arafat in 1965, rejected interim peace deals signed by Arafat with Israel in the 1990s. Posted by: Fred 2006-11-14 |
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