Mahmoud Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005 and remains its president at age 90, with recent Fatah party actions reinforcing his position. At the movement’s first general conference in a decade held in mid-May 2026, delegates unanimously re-elected him as Fatah chairman while his son Yasser secured a seat on the central committee. Abbas also appointed Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president and issued decrees designating him temporary successor in the event of a vacancy, creating a structured interim process pending elections. Traders monitor these consolidation moves alongside Abbas’s repeated pledges for long-delayed presidential and legislative votes, which have historically faced repeated postponements amid internal divisions and external pressures. The combination of his advanced age, ongoing institutional control, and absence of any announced retirement timeline shapes current assessments of near-term leadership change.