1. Ahmed Qurei previously served as speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and held a variety of significant positions within the Palestine Liberation Organization from the 1970s on.
14 Facts About Ahmed Qurei
1. 2.
Ahmed Qurei joined the Fatah faction, the largest of the political and military organisations making up the Palestine Liberation Organization, in 1968.
3.
Ahmed Qurei followed Yasser Arafat to Tunis after the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon.
4.
Ahmed Qurei founded and became director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction in 1993 to help garner money from international donors.
5.
Ahmed Qurei was responsible for a development plan for the Palestinian territories submitted to the World Bank in 1993.
6.
Ahmed Qurei was elected as the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council on 7 March 1996 in Gaza.
7.
On 5 October 2003, Ahmed Qurei was appointed prime minister by presidential decree, and an eight-member emergency government was sworn in on 7 October.
8.
Arafat and Ahmed Qurei disputed on Ahmed Qurei's demand for more authority to restructure the security forces to reduce the growing turmoil.
9.
On 15 December 2005 Ahmed Qurei briefly resigned his prime ministership post to run for a seat in the Palestinian Parliament, but returned to office nine days later after deciding not to run.
10.
On 26 January 2006 Ahmed Qurei announced his intention to resign following the Fatah party's defeat by Hamas in the parliamentary elections.
11.
At the request of PNA President, Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qurei remained in office in a caretaker capacity until being replaced by Ismail Haniyeh.
12.
In 2004 Ahmed Qurei said that if Israel failed to conclude an agreement with the Palestinians, that the Palestinians would pursue a single, bi-national state.
13.
In 2012, in an article in Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, Ahmed Qurei called for Palestinians to reconsider a one-state instead of a two-state solution.
14.
Ahmed Qurei blamed Israel for "burying" or "decapitating" the two-state solution through the building of settlements.