Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas was reelected head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Friday.

A four-day meeting of the PLO’s parliament, the Palestinian National Council (PNC), which was not attended by resistance movement Hamas, backed Abbas and selected a new leadership of the PLO’s executive committee.

“President Abu Mazen (Abbas) was nominated and unanimously approved as the president of the State of Palestine,” senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told AFP.

“An executive committee was chosen and an executive council was chosen.”

The PLO, an umbrella group which is dominated by Abbas’s Fatah party and includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas, represents the Palestinians internationally.

The first regular PNC meeting in 22 years was seen as an opportunity for 82-year-old Abbas to try to increase his legitimacy.

Although his term as president expired in 2009, disagreements with Hamas has made elections impossible.

Source: AFP