WEST BANKGAZA: President Mahmoud Abbas sets up new government against Hamas objections

Record ID: 1519039

  • Title: WEST BANKGAZA: President Mahmoud Abbas sets up new government against Hamas objections
  • Date: 17th June 2007
  • Summary: WIDE OF AHMAD BAHAR, ACTING SPEAKER OF PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENT OF HAMAS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AHMAD BAHAR, ACTING SPEAKER OF PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENT OF HAMAS, SAYING: "The government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh remains constitutional and legitimate and as a care-taker government until a new government is formed and won the confidence of the parliament according to the laws," WIDE OF BAHAR CLOSE OF CAMERAMAN
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2007 10:01
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2FH6V3IIR76X9ES9BH57KJ9U0
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah prepares to swear in a new government in the West Bank despite swift rejection by Hamas leadership in Gaza of the political move. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah prepared to swear in a new government in the West Bank on Saturday (June 16) despite swift rejection by Hamas leadership in Gaza of the political move.
    Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government after Islamist forces routed Fatah in the Gaza Strip and began imposing a new order in the enclave after days of bloody civil war.
    Abbas has picked Salam Fayyad, a Western-backed technocrat and formerly finance minister, to serve as prime minister of the emergency government in what Hamas said amounted to a coup.
    When asked when the designated government will be sworn in, Fayyad said: "By tomorrow noon maximum." Fayyad talked to reporters outside the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Abbas aides said the government will comprise 11 lawmakers.
    Arab governments said they would support Abbas and called for a return to the situation before the past week of violence.
    "What happened in Gaza two days ago is a fatal mistake and crime. It is a coup and I think it is a threat to the possibility of having an independent Palestinian state," Jibril Rajub, Abbas's national security advisor and a leading Fatah figure, told reporters.
    A member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) told reporters dismissed Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to renew dialogue with Abbas's Fatah movement.
    "We absolutely reject Mashaal's invitation, the one he sent out in Damascus, for a discussion, even if it is under Arab brothers supervision," Yasser Abed Rabbo, an Abbas loyalist, told a news conference in Ramallah.
    Hamas, who heads the government since winning 2006 parliamentary elections and holds a majority in the parliament, refused to dismissal.
    Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas, convened a meeting with Palestinian lawmakers in his Gaza office.
    "The government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh remains constitutional and legitimate and as a care-taker government until a new government is formed and won the confidence of the parliament according to the laws," Ahmad Bahar, acting speaker of the Parliament and a member of Hamas, told reporters in Gaza.
    Gaza and the West Bank are only about 45 km (30 miles) apart, with Israel in between, but they now appear poised to function as two separate territories -- a Fatah-controlled West Bank and a Hamas-controlled Gaza.
    Hamas said it did not seek its own state in Gaza, where 1.5 million people live crowded along 40 km (25 miles) of coast.
    Meanwhile, Hamas gunmen strengthened their grip on the impoverished strip and masked gunmen set up checkpoints in Gaza to prevent high-ranking Fatah officials from leaving the coastal enclave.
    Gunmen took over the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza, and were deployed along roads leading to one of Gaza's main gateways.
    "We provide safety for citizens and we are not letting people go to the West Bank, especially people with their hands covered of blood from the traitors stream. We do not let them pass to the West Bank," said a masked Hamas gunmen guarding the area. He also said they would allow passage only in humanitarian cases.
    Palestinian residents dismantled the Gaza-Israel coordination offices, located near the Erez crossing. The coordination offices, a Palestinian Authority-run institute, were abandoned when Hamas gunmen took over the area.
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