Yasser Arafat's nephew issues challenge to Mahmoud Abbas ahead of first Palestinian elections since 2006

Yasser Arafat’s nephew has called for a crackdown on corruption and the enforcement of strict term limits as he mounted a rare challenge against Mahmoud Abbas, the 85-year-old Palestinian president, ahead of the territories’ first elections in 15 years.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Nasser al-Qudwa, a veteran diplomat, said he was holding talks on a new political movement that hopes to contest the elections alongside Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Palestinian leader serving a life sentence in Israel for five deadly terror attacks.

“At this stage, I personally said that if Marwan Barghouti runs, and he expressed interest in running, I’ll be supporting him,” Mr Qudwa told the Telegraph.

Both men have long been regarded as potential successors to Mr Abbas, but are now mulling a breakaway political movement that could pose a threat to the President’s Fatah party in elections this summer.

Mr Qudwa is a longstanding member of Fatah's Central Committee, a former foreign minister and during his time at the UN as a Palestinian observer grew close to Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general.

The Palestinian Authority, which partially governs the West Bank, has not run legislative or presidential polls since 2006 and 2005, in part due to bitter tensions with the rival Islamist faction Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip.

Mr Qudwa said his uncle, the late Palestinian leader and founder of Fatah, would be "very angry" about the lack of democractic process if he were alive today.

Opinion polls suggest that Barghouti, who played a significant role in the deadly Second Intifada, is popular among Palestinians and could have enough support to defeat Mr Abbas.

And, as the nephew of the man known as the father of Palestinian nationalism, Mr Qudwa could potentially siphon a large number of votes from Mr Abbas' candidates.

It comes after Mr Qudwa hosted an online policy forum with 250 Palestinians two weeks ago, where plans for the potential breakaway movement from Fatah were discussed.

The new movement has not yet been given a name, and Mr Qudwa stressed that discussions were still at an early stage.

Asked about their manifesto pledges, Mr Qudwa said that “everything” needed to change in the Palestinian Territories, in particular its healthcare and education systems. He said one of the key priorities of the movement would be to "fight corruption seriously" in the Palestinian Territories.

“How many millionaires do we have? What is this? What is happening with our gas, why do we pay this amount of money for telephone calls, prices that do not belong to the current universe?” he said.

“Where does the money go? [These are] simple things, but straightforward, and then you will get the full confidence [of Palestinians.]”.

Mr Qudwa also said it was important that any future Palestinian Authority stuck to fixed term limits of four years, as the population was weary of elections being delayed again and again.

“Definitely this is not going to be repeated, as long as I have a say,” he said. “Checks and balances, term limits, [these are] basic things that need to be put in place.”

According to Reuters, Mr Abbas is said to have considered cancelling presidential elections in July as he fears he will be voted out - though this was denied by his office. The legislative elections are due to be held in May.

Mr Qudwa also criticised the Palestinian Authority’s response to the coronavirus, which he described as “lousy,” but said Mr Abbas was not entirely to blame for this.

“Generally, the way was very bad, there was a lack of planning, lack of contingencies and a lack of understanding of things,” he said.

Palestinian officials are currently grappling with a severe outbreak of Covid-19 in the West Bank, which prompted them to impose a lockdown at the end of February.

To date, there have been more than 2,100 deaths from the disease in the West Bank and Gaza.

Mr Qudwa went on to criticise Israel for initially refusing to share vaccines with the Palestinians, and described their actions as “much more horrible” than the failings of Palestinian leaders.

Asked whether the Palestinian relationship with Israel would change if Mr Abbas were unseated, he said: “It’s up to the Israelis. We are looking for a peaceful solution and one that restores the natural rights of Palestinians.”