PLO central council to discuss crucial issues

Ramallah, Feb 6 (IANS) The central council of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will convene on Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss crucial issues related to the internal situation and the relationship with Israel and the US.The meeting is scheduled to elect a new secretary general for the PLO's executive committee to succeed late Saeb Erekat, who died from Covid-19 in November 2020.Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the PLO's executive committee, told Xinhua news agency that representatives of seven Palestinian factions will participate in the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) meetings.The Palestinians, he said, are facing a complicated situation due to the obstruction of peace with Israel, "which coincides with the failure of the US to fill the existing political vacuum, whether by proposing a political initiative, moving the peace process, or appointing an envoy for the peace process".Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, sponsored by the US for nine months, once stopped in 2014 following deep differences over the borders of the future Palestinian state, settlement, and security issues.Meanwhile, the Palestinian left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second faction in the PLO after the Fatah Party, said that it decided not to join the PCC meetings in Ramallah.Minor Palestinian factions and independent figures also announced that they will not join the PCC meetings on Sunday, saying that it reinforces division and abandons the partnership approach and democratic expression required through elections.
--IANS ksk/

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