Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, says that, immediately after the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, all Palestinian Arab organizations, including Hamas, will be required to seriously examine their failure in order to achieve the goal of freedom for the Palestinian people.
The Hamas movement, he said, should make an honest and serious assessment and re-examine its policies and methods of operation.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, al-Sheikh said that the Oslo process cannot lead to the realization of the aspirations of the Palestinian Arab people to establish a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders.
He added that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has been weakened by Israel's military activities and the expansion of “settlements”, is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arab people and is ready to take control of Gaza after the war so that there will be one Palestinian Arab government ruling the Palestinian homeland.
Al-Sheikh pointed out that the US administration has not yet proposed a concrete mechanism or policy initiatives, mentioning Abbas’ call for an international peace conference to pave the way for the settlement of the conflict.
Al-Sheikh’s name has been floated around as a possible successor to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.