Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah today, and apparently prevailed upon Hamdallah to retract a resignation that he had angrily tendered yesterday. Hamdallah, it turns out, was surprised to learn that he has no real power:

“Hamdallah discovered that the Palestinian Authority president wants him to serve as a yes-man with no powers,” the source explained. “Abbas wanted a prime minister who would play no role and only carry out orders from the president’s office.”

Abbas’s decision to appoint two deputy prime ministers with expanded powers to the new government was the first sign of the PA president’s intention to curtail the powers of Hamdallah. Some Palestinians pointed out that the real prime minister was Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Mustafa, who also serves as the director of the PLO’s Palestine Investment Fund.

Hamdallah had been at his post some two weeks, having been appointed to the position after Salam Fayyad, the previous Palestinian prime minister, had been maneuvered out of office. The incident is already being read against perceptions that Palestinian political institutions are precipitously fragile and marked
by endemic corruption.

[Photo: Euronews / Youtube]