The wealthy son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could run for a top job in his 90-year-old father's political party, sources told Reuters. His possible candidacy comes as a battle looms over succession and control of the weakened Palestinian Authority (PA).
Yasser Abbas runs tobacco and construction companies in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the PA has limited self-government. His critics have long accused him and his brother Tarek, also a businessman, of using public funds to develop their businesses, a charge they both deny.
His entry into politics has fueled widespread speculation in the Palestinian territories that Mahmoud Abbas may be seeking to position Yasser, who is 64, as his successor at the helm of the powerful Fatah, the party that controls the PA.
Reuters writes that this has drawn criticism from some Fatah officials, who argue that Yasser Abbas would not be able to unite the Palestinians or help them chart a new political future after years without national elections or tangible steps towards statehood.
Yasser Abbas is expected to run for one of 18 seats on Fatah's Central Committee, which will be decided at the party's congress in the West Bank city of Ramallah from May 14-16, the first such gathering in nearly a decade, sources familiar with his plans said.
The younger Abbas has held meetings in recent weeks with party factions representing the PA security apparatus, as well as groups representing Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Reuters points out that this is an influential base whose support could help him when the approximately 2.500 Fatah members with the right to vote elect members of the Central Committee.
Some Fatah officials argue that Yasser Abbas would not be able to unite Palestinians or help them chart a new political future after years without national elections or tangible steps toward statehood.
He has long accompanied his father to political meetings, including a visit to Moscow last year, where they met with President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. His father last year put him in charge of Lebanese affairs within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), including overseeing the transfer of weapons from Palestinian militants to the Lebanese army.
Yasser Abbas, who has never held an official position in Fatah or the PA, declined a Reuters request for comment. Neither Mahmoud Abbas's office nor spokespeople for the longtime PA leader responded to questions about whether he was seeking to have his son succeed him to top positions in Fatah or the PA.
Sabri Saidam, who was elected to the Central Committee at Fatah's last congress in 2016, said the party has a democratic statute that allows any eligible member to run for that body.
"I hope to renew the leadership and strengthen the capacity of the movement, in order to prepare for the next phase, which is obviously more complex and difficult," Saidam said.
The PA was established as an interim administration under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, reached between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella organization that remains internationally recognized as representing the Palestinian people.
In the more than two decades since Mahmoud Abbas was elected as the successor to Yasser Arafat, the charismatic founder of Fatah, the PA's reputation has declined among Palestinians, who increasingly see it as ineffective and corrupt.
The PA was expelled from the Gaza Strip in 2007 by Hamas militants, who won elections there on an anti-corruption platform. There have been no Palestinian leadership elections since then, and Abbas has ruled by decree since his term expired in 2009.
The peace process, which was supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014, and the expansion of Israeli settlements has since fragmented areas once earmarked for future Palestinian control.
Reuters writes that the Palestinian Authority has also been hit by a severe financial crisis, exacerbated by a sharp reduction in US and Gulf donor aid, as well as Israel's refusal to pay Palestinian tax money due to a dispute over payments the PA makes to prisoners convicted by Israel of deadly attacks.
Yasser Abbas's entry into politics further widens the struggle for succession and control over the PA and the PLO.
Among those considered possible successors to Mahmoud Abbas is Hussein al-Sheikh, his longtime confidant and PLO vice-chairman. Another candidate is Marwan Barghouti, one of the leaders of the two intifadas, or uprisings against Israel from 1987 to 1993 and in the early 2000s, who enjoys great popularity among Palestinians despite being in an Israeli prison since 2002 on charges that include murder.
One Fatah leader described Yasser Abbas's possible role in the Central Committee as "a beginning" and said he would eventually seek a seat on the PLO's top Executive Committee, which would give him influence in the umbrella organization.
"It seems that Yasser Abbas is preparing for exactly that," said the Fatah leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But critics in Fatah argue that the rise of Yasser Abbas, who controls one of the West Bank's main cigarette importers, could further entrench Palestinian distrust of the authorities after years without national elections.
"Abbas is trying to blow the Fatah ship before he dies by making his son heir to the crown. This must be opposed and rejected by all Fatah people," said another senior Fatah official, also on condition of anonymity.
Reham Avda, a Palestinian political analyst, said Abbas may be able to help his son advance within Fatah, but there is no guarantee that party office would translate into success at the polls if and when elections are held.
"This does not alleviate the dissatisfaction of the Palestinian people, because democratic elections have not been held since 2006; on the contrary, it only intensifies it, since the public expects democratic elections - parliamentary and presidential," said Avda.
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