A long-time activist in Fatah, he represented the Palestine Liberation Organization at the United Nations from 1991 to 2005, when he became the Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

[2] In 2005, he was succeeded by Riyad H. Mansour, when he became Foreign Affairs Minister in the Palestinian Authority Government of February 2005.

[4] Al Qudwa was appointed deputy to Kofi Annan, then special envoy to Syria for the U.N. and Arab League in March 2012.

[7] On 21 March 2021, the Fatah Central Committee dismissed Al Qudwa from the party after he announced plans to run a separate list of candidates under the National Democratic Forum bloc in the 2021–22 Palestinian local elections.

He also announced plans to back Marwan Barghouthi, serving life sentences in Israeli prison for murder, in the 2021 Palestinian presidential election, which was delayed indefinitely.