Mohammad Shtayyeh has been named as Palestinian Prime Minister by President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. A member of the West Bank’s dominant Fatah party is a long time ally of Abbas.

The announcement comes six weeks after Rami al-Hamdallah tendered his resignation from the post and of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring the failure of Hamas and Fatah to implement a power-sharing deal.

Quoting Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian news agency, Wafa, has said, Abbas received Shtayyeh, a member of the central committee of the president’s Fatah party, at his office yesterday and asked him to form a new government. Some analysts view the appointment of 61-year-old Shtayyeh as part of Abbas’s efforts to further isolate Hamas, a rival political group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip.

Shtayyeh, a former government minister, has been part of a number of Palestinian negotiating teams in the United States-brokered talks with Israel and is a former Minister.