The Revolutionary Council of the Palestinian Fatah movement decided to nominate on Friday the current head of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas as head of autonomy in the upcoming elections in May 2012, RIA Novosti correspondent reported today.
Mahmoud Abbas took over as head of the Palestinian Authority after winning the 2005 elections, which were held after death of the first head of the PNA Yasser Arafat in late 2004.
"Revolutionary Council (Fatah) has unanimously decided to nominate Mahmoud Abbas as president in the next elections," the council group's press release said at the end of its work led by Mr Abbas in Ramallah.
Previously, 76-year-old Abbas has repeatedly said that he would not run for another term, and called the Fatah Revolutionary Council to find another candidate for the post.
Fatah and Hamas, after four years of strife signed in Cairo on May 4, 2011 an agreement on inter-Palestinian reconciliation. They agreed to form a unity government of the independent candidates, to hold in a year general elections in Palestine and to release political prisoners from the prisons of Gaza and the West Bank.
Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau leader Khaled Mashaal ratified the agreement on inter-Palestinian reconciliation in Cairo on December 24, 2011. The two leaders met again on February 6 in the Qatari capital Doha and decided to form a transitional autonomy cabinet, headed by Mr Abbas, whose main task is the preparation and conduct of elections.
The Palestinians seek to create their own state within the 1967 borders - in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with capital in East Jerusalem. Israel opposes this, and refuses to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians, having declared it Israel's eternal and undivided capital.