Disgraced Fatah member Dahlan waiting to lead ‘post Abbas era’

Sources close to dismissed Fatah leader, Muhammad Dahlan, revealed that he is making arrangements within the ranks of his Democratic Reform Current party to lead the Palestinian political scene after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in charge.

The sources told Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper that Dahlan is racing against time to arrange the ranks of his movement and establish trade union frameworks, noting that he recently established a central office for journalists similar to the Fatah Movement Journalists Office.

Dahlan is also reported to have been working to establish media institutions in the besieged Gaza Strip after Abbas banned his activities in the occupied West Bank.

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The 57-year-old was expelled from Fatah’s ruling body in 2011 on allegations of plotting to overthrow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has been living in exile in the UAE since 2012.

He was the former head of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Force in the Gaza Strip.

In December, Turkey added Dahlan to its most wanted terrorist list, with a $1.7 million bounty on his head, due to his alleged involvement in perpetrating the attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government on 15 July 2016, in cooperation with followers of the exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who remains in the US.