Ahmed Qurei, a member of Fateh also known as Abu Ala, was prime minister from October 2003, when he formed the emergency government following the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas. He held this position throughout the eighth Palestinian government, between November 2003 and February 2005 and during the ninth Palestinian government, until March 2006, when Hamas won the majority of seats in the parliament.
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Qurei was born in Abu Dis, Jerusalem, in 1937. He has a diploma in banking, and is a banker by profession. He joined the Fateh wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1968, but he did not become prominent within the PLO until the mid-1970s when he took over its economic and production enterprises in Lebanon.
When the PLO was forced out of Lebanon, Qurei went to Tunis with Yasser Arafat and his influence gradually grew until he was elected a member of the Fateh central committee in 1989. He had a key role in negotiating the Oslo Accords, and headed the negotiations that led to the April 1994 Paris Agreement and the September 1995 Oslo II Agreement.
He also played a major role in preparing the Palestinian development plan, presented to a World Bank conference on aid in 1993. This became a central document in the PLO development strategy. He also helped design the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) before being elected as head of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
After the Fateh party was defeated by Hamas in the parliamentary elections of January 2006, Qurei announced his intention to resign. However, at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, Qurei remained in office in the capacity of caretaker, until a successor was named.
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