Ahmed Qurei

احمد علي محمد قريع Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei
Qurei (right) as Prime Minister meeting then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
2nd Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority
In office October 7, 2003 – December 18, 2005 December 24, 2005 – March 29, 2006
Preceded by	Mahmoud Abbas Nabil Shaath (acting)
Succeeded by	Nabil Shaath (acting) Ismail Haniyeh
Personal details
Born	(1938-03-26) March 26, 1938 (age 78) Abu Dis, British Mandate for Palestine
Political party	Fatah
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei (or Qureia; أحمد علي محمد قريع, Aḥmad ʿAlī Muḥammad Qurayʿ), also known by his Arabic kunya Abu Alaa (أبو علاء, Abū ʿAláʾ) (born March 26, 1938) is a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. First appointed to the position in October 2003, he tendered his resignation on January 26, 2006, following the defeat of the Fatah party in the Palestinian legislative election, 2006, and remained in office in a caretaker capacity until 19 February when he was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh. During his tenure as prime minister, he has also had responsibility for security matters. He has previously served as speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and held a variety of significant positions within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the 1970s on.

Qurei was born in Abu Dis (near Jerusalem), Mandatory Palestine, in 1938. He joined the Fatah, the largest of the political and military organizations making up the Palestine Liberation Organization, in 1968. As a banker, he used his expertise during the 1970s as the director of the PLO's foreign investment branch and director-general of the PLO's economic branch, helping to make the organization one of the largest employers in Lebanon. He followed Yasser Arafat to Tunis after the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon. As more senior leaders died, Qurei rose to prominence and was elected to the Fatah Central Committee in August 1989.