Palestinian President Abbas appoints new prime minister of Palestinian Authority

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named Mohammad Mustafa on Tuesday as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Thursday.

Mustafa's appointment comes after mounting pressure to reform the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories and improve its governance in the occupied West Bank where they are based.

Mustafa replaces former Prime Minister Mohammed Shttayah who, along with his government, resigned in February.

Mohammad Mustafa, is one of the leading Palestinian business figures and a rare ally of PA head Mahmoud Abbas who has overseen Gaza reconstruction under Hamas Islamist rule.

A U.S.-educated economist, he once ran the Palestinian telecoms company Paltel and more recently the PA's public Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), with nearly $1 billion in assets funding projects across the Palestinian territories.

He was tapped a decade ago to help lead reconstruction efforts in Gaza after an earlier war between Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas.