Ahmad Qurai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Qurai (right) in 2004 with Colin Powell

Ahmad Qurai ( Arabic أحمد قريع, DMG Aḥmad Quraiʿ ), also Ahmed Kurei (born March 26, 1937 in Abu Dis , east of Jerusalem , former League of Nations area of ​​Palestine ) was head of government of the Palestinian territories from September 2003 to January 2006 . He is also known by the name Abu Ala (أبو علاء, DMG Abū ʿAlāʾ ) known.

Life

Qurai has been a member of Fatah since 1968 . He held a senior position at the PLO headquarters in Beirut . After the PLO was expelled from Beirut in 1982, he was in exile in Tunisia with Yasser Arafat .

In 1989 Qurai was elected to the Central Committee of Fatah; After disagreements with Arafat in 1994, he resigned as head of the economic affairs department in the Palestinian Mission in Exile and returned to Palestine.

Several secret negotiations with Israel (including Oslo 1993). He prepared the so-called "Oslo Talks" in London with the moderate Israeli professor Yair Hirschfeld.

In 1996 he was elected President of Parliament. In February 2003 he denied secret ceasefire negotiations with Ariel Sharon .

Qurai assumed the office of Palestinian Prime Minister on September 10, 2003. He submitted his resignation on July 17, 2004 after French technicians and Palestinian security officials were held hostage in the Gaza Strip . But his resignation was rejected by Yasser Arafat . After Arafat's death he was again prime minister under the new chairman of the autonomous authority, Mahmud Abbas . Ahmad Qurai is considered a moderate representative of his country. On January 26, 2006, he resigned from his post because Hamas won an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections.