Afif Safieh
Afif Safieh, born in Jerusalem in 1950, is a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council (RC). He has held a number of diplomatic postings, including as PLO representative in Moscow (2008-2009); in Washington, DC (2005-2008); to the Vatican (1995-1998), in London (1990-1995); and in the Netherlands (1987-1990). Before that, he was deputy head of the PLO delegation in Geneva, and to the UN, as well as a member of Yasser Arafat's office in Beirut.
Safieh was involved in back-channel talks with Israel, hosted in Stockholm, that began in 1988. He studied at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, then in the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. During this time, he headed the Belgian branch of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) between 1969-1971; and the French branch of GUPS between 1974-1975.