BREAKING NEWS

Abbas reopens Palestinian NGO after European pressure

By REUTERS

AUGUST 27, 2015 15:03

RAMALLAH - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has revoked his decision to close an internationally-funded Palestinian peace center run by a political rival following European intervention, officials said on Thursday.

The Palestinian Peace Coalition (PPC) promotes, along with Israeli activists, an unofficial plan -- known as the Geneva Initiative -- for Palestinian statehood and an end to conflict with Israel.

A presidential decree issued last week ordered the PPC to be shut and its assets and property in the West Bank city of Ramallah transferred to the Information Ministry.

But a Palestinian official, who asked not to be identified, said European supporters of the center, especially Switzerland, had pressed the government to keep it open.

"Legally, the previous decision was withdrawn," said Abbas's legal adviser Hassan Al-Auri.

A Palestinian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a letter was sent to the Swiss Foreign Ministry by its Palestinian counterpart in Ramallah pledging that the PPC would continue to operate.

Abbas' office gave no reason for the original decision to shut the PPC but it was widely seen as an attempt to sideline Yasser Abed Rabbo, who ran the center and who was secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization until his unexpected dismissal last month by the president.

Abed Rabbo, effectively Abbas's number two in the PLO, has been critical of the president's decision-making for some time.

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