Top News

Hamas submits cabinet list to Abbas

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-20 10:15

Hamas handed moderate Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas a cabinet line-up dominated by its own leaders after all other parties snubbed the Islamic militant group's offers to join it.

Hours before prime minister designate Ismail Haniya presented the list to the Palestinian Authority president, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced it was following other parties in steering clear of a government led by Hamas.

Hamas had been negotiating with other factions for nearly two months after it emerged as landslide winner of the January 25 election but it has now had to stitch together its first ever cabinet from within its own ranks and a smattering of independents.

Abbas, whose own Fatah faction had earlier also snubbed Hamas's entreaties, was due to hold a joint press conference with the prime minister designate after their meeting.

But earlier he refused to be drawn on how he would react to the list, which he must first approve and then forward to parliament.

While he has little choice but to endorse the nominations of Hamas, which now has an overwhelming majority in parliament, there were indications he may hold back giving his rubber stamp until Israel goes to the polls on March 28.

"Once we have seen that list, we will then follow the regular legal procedures and then go to the PLC (parliament)," Abbas told reporters.

"I don't know who is in the government or their programme. Until I hear that, I have nothing further to add."

His spokesman indicated that he could wait until after an Arab League summit on the same day in Sudan and would also discuss the issue with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

"We don't know if parliament will meet this week to vote on the government or not. That is up to Abu Mazen (Abbas) who is busy with the Khartoum summit," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

Haniya was asked by Abbas to form a government nearly four weeks ago in the wake of the Islamists' stunning win over the formerly dominant Fatah.

Fatah refused to join a government that would not respect international agreements it brokered with Israel, with many leaders happy to watch how Hamas deals with a host of problems including a burgeoning financial crisis.

Other secular parties such as Independent Palestine and the Third Way, led by former finance minister Salam Fayad, also declined Hamas's overtures.

The PFLP said it would not join as Hamas refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the PLO, a body of which Hamas is not even a member.

"We have informed our brothers in Hamas about our decision which comes after final consultations with the leadership inside and outside Palestine and in the jails," Jamil Majdalawi, one of the party's lawmakers, told AFP.

Hamas sources said its hardline parliamentary leader Mahmud al-Zahar would be nominated foreign minister while Omar Abdul Razeq, only just released from Israeli custody, would take the finance portfolio.

Israel has said it will not deal with a Hamas-led government unless it overhauls its platform. Hamas is regarded by the West, as well as by Israel, as a terror group for continuing to advocate violence despite embracing democracy.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni saw little sign of a change of heart.

"Israel wants the creation of a Palestinian state but it will not accept being threatened by a terrorist state," she said.

Even before Hamas takes power, relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are at one of their lowest ebbs ever.

Despite the protests of the Palestinian Authority, Israel has closed its main trade crossing into Gaza for much of the year on security grounds.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned that the territory was now dangerously short of basic foodstuffs such as bread.

"Flour and wheat are not the only products in short supply. There is a shortage of sugar, oil and many of the other basic commodities," UNRWA's director in Gaza John Ging told reporters.

Foreign ministers of the European Union -- by far the Palestinians' biggest donor -- were due to meet on Monday to ponder how to continue providing aid to needy Palestinians without being seen to endorse a government led by a group which has carried out dozens of suicide attacks in the last five years.