Palestinian Succession Talk Heats Up as PLO Council Convenes
- Aging Abbas spurns Trump, resists pressure to step down
- Hamas nipping at leader’s heels, bolstered by Gaza protests
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A series of illnesses that sent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to hospital and sparked rumors he was dead has put the 83-year-old leader under renewed pressure to designate a successor. He’s still resisting.
Abbas lashed out at Israel, Hamas and the Trump administration Wednesday in a speech at the opening of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council meeting in Ramallah, once again rejecting the White House’s “Deal of the Century” proposal for peace with Israel that hasn’t been unveiled yet. “We will continue to fight it until it is dropped," he said.