Mohammad Shtayyeh

Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh (محمد اشتية; born 17 January 1958) is a Palestinian politician, academic, and economist who has served as Prime Minister of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority since 2019.

On 26 February 2024, he and his government announced their resignation, remaining in office in a demissionary capacity until a new government has been formed.

Shtayyeh graduated from Birzeit University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics in 1981.

He then attended the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton, United Kingdom, receiving his doctorate in economic development in 1989.

Shtayyeh served as a professor of economic development from 1989 to 1991 at Birzeit University.

Shtayyeh was a member of the Palestinian advance team at the Madrid Conference in 1991 and a member of the Palestinian negotiation delegation on subsequent occasions.

He later became dean of student affairs there until 1993.

He served as its director of administration and finance from 1994 to 1996.

From 1995 until 1998, Shtayyeh held the position of Secretary-General of the Central Elections Commission of Palestine.

Shtayyeh was named a minister of Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR), a $1.6 billion public investment fund, in 1996.

He was elected minister of public works and housing for the Palestinian Authority in 2005 and 2008.

Since 2005, Shtayyeh has been the Palestinian governor for the Islamic Bank.

From 2005–2006 and then again from 2008–2010, he was the minister of public works and housing.

As Secretary-General of the Central Elections Commission of Palestine, he negotiated an agreement with Israel in order to cooperate in the conduct of Palestinian presidential and legislative elections.

Elected to Fatah's Central Committee in the 2009 and 2016 elections, Shtayyeh is aligned with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Shtayyeh was appointed Prime Minister in March 2019, and took office on 13 April.

During his premiership, he has pursued peace negotiations between Hamas, which de facto controls the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian central government in the West Bank.

When heads of state from the 55-member African Union met for a two-day summit in February 2022, Shtayyeh urged the African Union to remove Israel's observer status.

On 26 February 2024, in the midst of the ongoing Israel–Hamas war and its spillover in the West Bank, Shtayyeh announced he would resign, citing dissatisfaction with the current situation in the region and the need for "new governmental and political arrangements" as well as the full extension of Palestinian Authority control over the Palestinian territories.

Pending the appointment of a successor by President Mahmoud Abbas, Shtayyeh remains in office as head of a caretaker government.