Mahmud Abbas addresses his Fatah party's first congress since 2009 on Wednesday as he contends with internal dissent and grim prospects for advancing his decades-long goal of achieving a Palestinian state. The 81-year-old leader was re-elected head of Fatah as the congress opened on Tuesday, but speculation has mounted over who will eventually succeed him as Palestinian president. It comes with Palestinians facing continued Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and an incoming Donald Trump administration in the United States seen as far more friendly to Israel.
