Fatah official denies plans to dismantle PA

Mahmoud al-Aloul tells Ma'an, "government in bad situation, looking for solutions"; report comes amid rumors Abbas to dissolve organization.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Mahmoud Abbas 311 (photo credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)
Mahmoud Abbas 311
(photo credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)
The Palestinian Authority is not planning to dismantle its organization, senior Fatah official Mahmoud al-Aloul told Palestinian news agency Ma'an on Friday.
"The government is in a bad situation and is looking for solutions, but not to dismantle [the PA]," Aloul said.
RELATED:PA officials deny rumors of Abbas plan to dismantle PA
The report comes in response to unconfirmed reports published in a number of Arab media outlets that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would make a “surprise announcement” in the coming days.
On Thursday, Ghassan Shaka’ah, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that the resignation of Abbas or the dismantlement of the PA was not an “individual matter and would require a Palestinian consensus,” Shaka’ah said.
On Wednesday night, Abbas hinted at the possibility of dissolving the PA when he told a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council that the “Palestinian Authority was not an authority and many people and institutions ask me about the futility of maintaining it.”
Abbas said that he planned to discuss the future of the PA with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal during their meeting set for next month.
Abbas said that when he met US President Barack Obama in New York last month, he asked him for an answer as to where the Palestinians were headed.
“The important question that we are asking is: Where are we headed?” he said. “We want an answer to this question and we want to know what to do. The Palestinian Authority is no longer an authority and this is the issue that needs to be addressed.”