Headlines
Mahmoud Abbas resigns from PLO leadership position
Ramallaha, Aug 23
Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that he resigned as the chairman of
Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee to
reactivate the organisation.
Abbas and nine PLO executive
committee members resigned on Saturday and called for an emergency
meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the parliament in
exile, to convene and elect new PLO members, Xinhua reported.
According
to the Palestinian law, the PNC has to convene within 30 working days
in case more than one third of the PLO executive committee's 18 members
resign.
Abbas told reporters that the executive committee is the
government of the state of Palestine, and that it represents the
Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the
Diaspora.
"We are passing through hard circumstances and what we
need is to reactivate the PLO executive committee; therefore I resigned
together with nine other members," Abbas said, adding that within one
month, the PNC should convene and a new PLO executive committee has to
be elected.
The Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, slammed on Sunday the resignations of Abbas and nine other members.
Hamas
spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zhuri, said that the resignation "is a
unilateral call for holding the Palestinian National Council ... it is a
retreat on reconciliation. "
"The call to convene the PNC to
elect new executive committee shows a total ignorance, unilateralism and
an absence to real intentions for achieving a real internal
reconciliation," he said.