Mahmoud Abbas resigns from PLO leadership position

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that he resigned as the chairman of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee to reactivate the organisation.

Abbas and nine PLO executive committee members resigned on Saturday and called for an emergency meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the parliament in exile, to convene and elect new PLO members, Xinhua reported.

According to the Palestinian law, the PNC has to convene within 30 working days in case more than one third of the PLO executive committee's 18 members resign.

Abbas told reporters that the executive committee is the government of the state of Palestine, and that it represents the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the Diaspora.

"We are passing through hard circumstances and what we need is to reactivate the PLO executive committee; therefore I resigned together with nine other members," Abbas said, adding that within one month, the PNC should convene and a new PLO executive committee has to be elected.

The Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, slammed on Sunday the resignations of Abbas and nine other members.

Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zhuri, said that the resignation "is a unilateral call for holding the Palestinian National Council ... it is a retreat on reconciliation. "

"The call to convene the PNC to elect new executive committee shows a total ignorance, unilateralism and an absence to real intentions for achieving a real internal reconciliation," he said.