The Fatah veteran, who spent more than 10 years in Israeli prisons in the seventies and eighties, is seen as a Mahmoud Abbas successor.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a relatively unknown veteran of Fatah and former prisoner in Israel, has been chosen as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and vice president of the Palestinian authority (PA), positioning it as a potential.
The appointment of Alsheikh to both positions follows years of international pressure to reform the PLO and occurs when the Arab and Western powers imagine an expanded role for the AP in the postwar government of the Gaza Strip.
Abbas had nominated Al-Sheikh to the posts last week, and the Executive Committee of PLO officially approved the appointments on Saturday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Founded in 1964, the PLO is empowered to negotiate and sign international treaties on the being of the Palestinian people, while the AP is responsible for governing parts of the Palestinian territory, particularly the occupied West Bank.
The OP is an umbrella organization that includes several Palestinian political factions. But it excludes Hamas and Islamic jihad, who are currently at war with Israeli forces in Gaza and disagree with Abbas.
Al-Sheikh, 64, is a veteran leader of Abbas Fatah Movement, who dominates the PA, and is considered close to the president. It spent more than 10 years in Israeli prisons at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, a duration of what Hebrew learned.
In 2022, he was appointed general secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLU and head of his negotiation department, a sensitive portfolio, which demonstrates his narrow links with Abbas.
Abbas also recently appointed him as head of a committee that supervises the Palestinian diplomatic missions abroad.
Marwan Bishara, the senior political analyst of Al Jazeera, said Al-Sheikh has been “prepared during the last 18 years” by Abbas.
“Hey [al-Sheikh] It has existed since 2007 after Abbas took after the division between Gaza and the occupied West Bank, ”said Bishara, and pointed out that the new attached leader has been the main person who coordinates with Israel in security matters.
“The Israelis know him and trust him, more than they know and trust Abbas.”
The Palestinian analyst Hani Al-Masri requested the creation of a vice presidential position within the PA iself. “This is not a reform measure, but an external pressure response,” Masri of the Palestinian Center for the investigation of strategic policies and studies said.
“What is required is a vice president of the AP to whom the powers could be transferred,” he told the AFP news agency.
Saudi Arabia welcomed the “reform steps” tasks of Abbas by appointing Al-Sheikh as his deputy.
According to Palestinian officials, in the case of the death or resignation of Abbas, the vice president is expected to become the interim chief of the PLO and the state of Palestine, which is recognized by almost 150 countries.
The concerns have been growing within the PLO that Israel could exploit Abbas’s departure and a possible power vacuum.
The senior Hamas officer, Bassem Naim, gave him the appointment of Al Sheikh an icy reception.
“The Palestinian people are not a herd that is imposed on leaders with a doubtful story that have linked their present and future with occupation,” he said in a statement.
“Legitimacy is maintained only by the Palestinian people, and their tools are the rifle to resist occupation and polls. The guardianship of our people has gone a long time ago.”