Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has resigned as the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, it has been announced.
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More than half of the 18-member committee also stepped down along with Abbas.
Al Arabiya reported that the Palestinian national council has called for an election within the next month to select a new executive committee for the PLO. The PNC, or Palestinian parliament, has 740 members who live in the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora.
The executive committee is the highest executive body of the PLO, and the provisional government of the State of Palestine.
However, Abbas, after taking up his position in 2005, has since threatened to resign on several occasions.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was elected as the PLO’s secretary general before the announcement of Abbas’ resignation, he said.
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Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli media reported about possible resignation, saying that it would reflect growing factionalism in the politics of the Palestinian autonomy and the dissatisfaction by Abbas’s policy. It was not immediately clear why Abed Rabbo, a veteran PLO figure, had been sidelined.
