EGN NEWS DESK
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority appointed a longtime insider throughout the authority’s high ranks as prime minister on Thursday, rejecting worldwide strain to empower an unbiased prime minister who may revitalize the sclerotic authority.
Mr. Abbas, who’s 88 and has lengthy dominated by decree, named Muhammad Mustafa, an in depth financial adviser, to take the prime minister’s spot, signing a doc charging him with placing collectively a brand new authorities, in accordance with Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official information company. Mr. Mustafa has three weeks to take action, however can take a further two weeks if wanted, in accordance with Palestinian legislation.
The doc Mr. Abbas handed to Mr. Mustafa mentioned the priorities of the federal government ought to embrace main efforts to offer humanitarian support to individuals in Gaza, reconstructing what has been destroyed throughout the battle between Israel and Hamas, and placing forth plans and mechanisms to reunite Palestinian governing constructions within the West Bank and the coastal enclave.
It additionally known as for “persevering with the reform course of.”
Much of the Palestinian public sees the Palestinian Authority as tainted by corruption, mismanagement and cooperation with Israel.
As president, Mr. Abbas stays firmly answerable for the federal government. With no practical parliament, Mr. Abbas has lengthy dominated by decree, and he exerts vast affect over the judiciary and prosecution system. There has been no presidential election within the Palestinian territories since 2005, and no legislative election since 2006.
In late February, Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh tendered the resignation of his cupboard, citing the necessity for a brand new authorities that “takes into consideration the rising actuality within the Gaza Strip.” Mr. Shtayyeh’s authorities has continued in a caretaker capability.
Hamas led a lethal assault from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel has answered with intense bombardment and an invasion, vowing to interrupt the group’s grip on the enclave. But these occasions have raised tough questions on how a postwar Gaza might be ruled and rebuilt.
The Palestinian Authority has restricted governing powers on the West Bank. It misplaced management of Gaza to Hamas in a 2007 energy battle.
The United States has been calling for overhauling the broadly unpopular Palestinian Authority in current months, hoping it may finally assume the reins of governance in Gaza after the battle. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, nonetheless, has rejected any such function for the authority.
While the Biden administration didn’t inform Mr. Abbas whom to nominate as prime minister, it conveyed that it hoped for an unbiased determine who was acceptable to unusual Palestinians, the worldwide neighborhood and Israel, in accordance with Western diplomats, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk with the media.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, mentioned in a press release that the Biden administration welcomed the appointment and urged “the formation of a reform cupboard as quickly as doable.”
In the Palestinian Authority, the prime minister is meant to supervise the work of ministries, however Mr. Abbas usually intervenes in decision-making, in accordance with analysts.
Nasser al-Qudwa, a former international minister whose title was floated as a doable prime minister, mentioned earlier than the announcement of Mr. Abbas’s alternative that appointing Mr. Mustafa would signify “no actual change.”
“It can be changing one worker named Mohammed with one other worker named Muhammad, whereas Abbas continues to carry all of the playing cards. What’s the change?” mentioned Mr. Qudwa, a fierce opponent of Mr. Abbas, who’s often known as Abu Mazen. “Abu Mazen desires to maintain the established order. He desires to maintain all the energy in his fingers.”
In addition to serving as Mr. Abbas’s adviser, Mr. Mustafa, an economist educated at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., has been the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, whose board is appointed by the president of the authority. He has beforehand been the authority’s economic system minister and deputy prime minister.
For weeks, Mr. Abbas has signaled his want to nominate Mr. Mustafa. In January, he despatched Mr. Mustafa to the World Economic Forum’s annual convention in Davos, the place heads of state and international ministers collect to debate world affairs.
At the convention, Mr. Mustafa mentioned he thought the Palestinian Authority may enhance its governance. “We don’t need to give any excuses for anybody,” he mentioned in a wide-ranging dialogue with Borge Brende, the discussion board’s president. “The Palestinian Authority can do higher when it comes to constructing higher establishments.”
In his new place, Mr. Mustafa will possible face huge challenges, which can embrace making an attempt to reconstruct the devastated Gaza Strip and bettering the credibility of the federal government.
Some analysts, nonetheless, mentioned judgment on a brand new authorities ought to be reserved till the general public learns the identities of its ministers, and the way a lot authority and independence they will wield.
“We shouldn’t rush to say it should fail,” Ibrahim Dalalsha, the director of the Horizon Center for Political Studies and Media Outreach, a political evaluation group based mostly in Ramallah, West Bank. “We want to attend and see the way it will carry out.”
