On March 10, Mahmoud Abbas appointed Muhammad Shtayyeh the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), replacing Rami Hamdallah who had tendered his resignation in January. Pinḥas Inbari explains the political considerations behind Shtayyeh’s appointment and the challenges he faces in forming a new government. At issue are the tensions between Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction and the other groups that make up the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO):

Shtayyeh is not [considered] a Fatah “fighter,” [since he has not] spent time in an Israeli prison. . . . Fatah’s main concern now is that its senior officials be promoted to key positions [in preparation for] the day after Mahmoud Abbas [dies or otherwise leaves office]. . . . The reason Abbas is not interested in promoting any of the senior Fatah fighters is to avoid inflaming the succession struggle now.

Instead of a Fatah government as such, Abbas is more interested in a PLO government [that includes other factions] due to his struggle with Hamas over the legitimacy of the PLO’s authority. . . . But here lies the main problem: [the other] leading PLO organizations, including the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, and Islamic Jihad, are aligned with Hamas rather than with Ramallah. It is now taken for granted that they will not join Shtayyeh’s new government. . . .

It is [nevertheless] expected that Shtayyeh will “open the door” to those organizations, which are terrorist according to every conceivable definition, thereby putting the continuation of international financial aid to Ramallah at risk. . . .

All of the above is linked to the Jerusalem issue. Ramallah wants to make the fight for Jerusalem the leading national struggle, while for Hamas, the central battle is along the borders. Abbas’s aim is to attract the PLO organizations to join Ramallah at the expense of Gaza.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.