Palestinian leader Abbas names likely successor in bid to reassure world powers

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, 89, on Saturday appointed a close adviser, Hussein al-Sheikh, to the newly created post of vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), making him his possible successor.

Hussein al-Sheikh appointed as Palestinian vice president

The Palestine Liberation Organization approved on Saturday the appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as the vice president of its executive committee and the State of Palestine.

Palestinian leader Abbas names a deputy seen as a likely successor

The step is widely understood as a bid to assuage doubts over a Palestinian leadership amid a long-brewing a crisis of legitimacy, especially as Abbas hopes to play a major role in postwar Gaza

Mahmoud Abbas' new deputy

Palestinian Authority chair Mahmoud Abbas' new deputy named as Fatah Secretary-General and terrorist Hussein al-Sheikh, who served a prison sentence in Israel.

For years Mahmoud Abbas had resisted internal reforms. Now the Palestinian President has appointed his confidant Hussein al-Sheich as his deputy and presumed successor.

Palestinian President Abbas has appointed his close confidant al-Sheich as his deputy, who is considered to be the designated successor of the 89-year-old, who has been at the head of the Palestinian Authority since 2004.