Muhammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, and his government resign

CNN
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Today, Monday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh and his government announced their resignation.

Shtayyeh said in a blog post on his Facebook page: “I would like to inform the honorable council and our great people that I placed the government’s resignation at the disposal of Mr. President (Mahmoud Abbas) last Tuesday, and today I submit it in writing.” .

The resignation comes at a time when the Palestinian Authority, which is seen as corrupt, is collapsing Intense pressure from the United States To reform and improve its governance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority was established in the mid-1990s as an interim government awaiting Palestinian independence after the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords with Israel. Its headquarters are located in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and it exercises nominal self-rule in parts of the region.

The government, dominated by the Fatah movement, had administrative control over Gaza until 2007, after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and was expelled from the Strip. Israel rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority returning to Gaza after the war, and rejected the idea of ​​establishing a Palestinian state in the territories.

However, the United States prefers that a reformed Palestinian Authority control both the West Bank and Gaza as part of a future independent state.

Shtayyeh, who was appointed prime minister in 2019, told CNN in October that there can be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Without usBut he added that the current US administration does not have the political will to end the conflict. “They manage it,” he said.

And the Palestinian Authority is too Not very popular Among Palestinians, who see it as incapable of providing security in the face of regular Israeli incursions into the West Bank. A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research last December showed more than 60% The Palestinians want to dissolve the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, support for President Abbas, who has held the position since 2005, has collapsed. In the West Bank, 92% of respondents want him to resign, according to the poll.

the The position of Prime Minister The Palestinian Authority was established in 2003, following the Second Palestinian Intifada after the United States, the European Union and Israel called for reforms. It was the first real move toward power-sharing by then-President Yasser Arafat since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. At that time, Arafat appointed Abbas as prime minister. Abbas assumed the presidency of the country after Arafat's death in 2004.

This is a developing story and will be updated.