Arab leaders urging Trump to replace Mahmoud Abbas
Arab leaders are urging President-elect Donald Trump to take measures to replace Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas amid the PA’s floundering effort to crack down on Jenin-area terror groups.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in New York City in 2018. Pic: A Katz/Shutterstock.
An Arab diplomat, who took part in a series of meetings recently held by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s new Middle East advisor, told The Press Service of Israel that a series of Arab leaders said they see no reason to have any diplomatic contact with Abbas.
TPS-IL was told that these demanded that the new US administration act as soon as possible to bring about the establishment of a new Palestinian leadership if the administration intends to bring about a permanent solution in the Gaza Strip.
The Arab leaders told Witkoff that not only is Abbas preventing a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, he is also obstructing efforts to resolve the situation in Gaza due to his political weakness and low popularity.
“The plan to restore Palestinian governance in Gaza, the one that Abu Mazen sent to the White House several months ago, was rejected outright and the Americans are not willing to discuss it due to the understanding that Abu Mazen [Abbas] cannot constitute a governing force in the Gaza Strip,” the source told TPS-IL.
He explained that Abbas launched a crackdown on terror groups in Jenin “to demonstrate his governing capabilities, but for now there is no change in the position of the moderate Arab countries on this matter.”
Palestinian sources told TPS-IL that Abbas’s plan to restore PA governance to Gaza was not discussed at any Cabinet meetings and is not familiar to members of the Fatah Central Committee. The sources said Abbas’s plan was apparently only shared with three close associates: intelligence chief Majed Faraj, Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa, and senior Palestine Liberation Organization figure Hussein al-Sheikh.
“The Palestinian Authority now has no possibility of influencing the emerging situation in the Gaza Strip, and apart from the plan that was sent to the White House after being hastily prepared, there is no real Palestinian strategy,” one Palestinian source told TPS-IL.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority security operations against terror groups in Jenin have shown no successes after 19 days. A senior PA official told TPS-IL during the initial raids that the crackdown was part of a broader strategy to demonstrate PA authority’s ability to maintain governance as Ramallah eyes eventually administering the Gaza Strip.
The Arab diplomat told TPS-IL that Arab leaders see the PA’s action as insufficient.
Palestinians have not held national elections since 2005 and Abbas is now in the 19th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. Since then, Abbas has cancelled several attempted elections amid Fatah-Hamas disagreements, most recently in 2021.
The most recent public opinion survey, released by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development in mid-December, found 71% of Palestinians were dissatisfied with the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Reasons included not providing a vision for the postcrisis period (76%), limited communication with the public (77%) and dissatisfaction with his approach to governance (73%)
