Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s son, long in the shadows, seeks political role

RAMALLAH: The millionaire businessman son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to run for a steering role in his 90-year-old father’s political party, sources say, as a succession fight looms for control of the embattled Palestinian Authority (PA). Yasser Abbas runs tobacco and contracting firms in the parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank where the PA exercises limited self rule. His critics have long accused him and his brother Tarek, also a businessman, of using public funds to fuel their businesses, allegations both men reject. His foray into politics has fuelled widespread speculation within the Palestinian Territories that Mahmoud Abbas may be seeking to position Yasser, 64, to succeed him as head of his powerful Fatah party that controls the PA. That has drawn criticism from some Fatah officials, who say that Yasser Abbas would be unable to unify Palestinians or help them chart a new political future after years without any national elections or tangible steps toward statehood. Seat on Fatah committee Yasser Abbas is expected to seek one of 18 seats on Fatah’s Central Committee that are being contested during a party conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah from May 14-16, its first such gathering in almost 10 years, sources familiar with his plans said. In recent weeks, Yasser Abbas has held meetings with party factions representing the PA’s security establishment as well as groups representing prisoners held by Israel, an influential constituency whose support could bolster him when Fatah’s estimated 2,500 voting members cast ballots for the committee. He has long joined his father in political meetings, including on a visit to Moscow last year when they met President Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Last year, his father asked him to lead Lebanon affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, overseeing weapons handovers by Palestinians to the Lebanese army. Sabri Saidam, who was elected to the Central Committee duri