Armed Palestinian militants loyal to President Mahmud Abbas patrol in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas signed early Sunday a decree appointing a new emergency cabinet, a source close to the leader said.(AFP/Awad Awad)
Posted on 06/16/2007 9:34:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was set to install a new emergency cabinet in the West Bank on Sunday, further sealing a divide sparked by the seizure of the Gaza Strip by Islamists.
Palestinian officials hope the appointment of the new cabinet without Hamas ministers will lead to the lifting of a crippling Western aid boycott, and Israel has already said it will recognise and work with the new Palestinian government.
The appointment of a new cabinet comes amid a continuing power struggle, with Fatah fighters storming the parliament in the West Bank and ransacking dozens of offices linked to Hamas on Saturday, while Hamas militants conducted house-to-house searches for Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.
Sources close to Abbas said the Palestinian leader had already signed early Sunday a decree to appoint the 11 ministers, independent experts under prime minister Salam Fayyad, who are due to be sworn in by 1:00 pm (1000 GMT).
Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas from Gaza this week, leading the president to sack Thursday a government led by the Islamists and appoint the Western-backed Fayyad, a former finance minister, to form a new emergency cabinet.
The rout ended months of fighting between Hamas militants and supporters of Abbas' secular Fatah movement that had gripped the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's takeover of Gaza, branded a military coup by Abbas, has effectively split the Palestinians into two separately ruled entities in Gaza and the West Bank, making their aspirations of an independent state an ever more distant dream.
But the end of the Palestinian unity government led by Hamas has also given Abbas the opportunity to appoint a new cabinet in the hope of ending the direct Western aid boycott to the Palestinian Authority.
The United States and European Union, which along with Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group, halted direct aid to the Palestinian Authority last year after Hamas formed a government following its stunning election victory.
Bolstered by Western and Arab backing, Abbas on Friday named the independent Fayyad to head an emergency cabinet.
The so-called Quartet of international mediators for Middle East peace -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- offered their "full support" to Abbas.
On Saturday, they recognised the "legitimacy" of his decision to sack the Hamas-led unity government and declare a state of emergency.
A senior Palestinian official told AFP on Saturday that the US government has indicated it will resume aid once the new cabinet has been sworn in, but a State Department spokeswoman in Washington said that no decision had yet been made.
Israel also indicated its support of the new cabinet.
"A Palestinian government which is not a Hamas government is a partner and we will cooperate with it," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said early Sunday as he left Israel for a trip to the United States.
"A new reality has been created during these past days which we haven't known during the long diplomatic efforts accompanying the evolution of the Palestinian Authority, and we have the intention of working full-tilt to seize this opportunity," he added.
A senior Israeli official told AFP on Friday that the Jewish state was willing to release hundreds of millions of dollars in custom revenues, which it has withheld following Hamas's election victory, if the new cabinet agrees to recognise Israel, renounce violence and agree to abide by past peace deals.
On Saturday, Fatah fighters went on the rampage against Hamas in the West Bank, stoking fears deadly factional violence could spread as the Islamists tightened their grip on power in the volatile Gaza Strip.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, denounced "an extermination campaign" in the West Bank and put the responsibility on Abbas. "We will not remain with our arms crossed in the face of these crimes."
In Gaza, Hamas gunmen were going house to house on Saturday in search of Fatah rivals to seize their weapons. At least 200 Fatah men have already fled the territory to neighbouring Egypt.
With Gaza sealed off from the outside world by Israel, there are fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished strip of land.
Sacked Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya named a new police chief after the pro-Fatah police commander banned his men in Gaza from cooperating with the Islamists, threatening any who did so would be treated as "mutineers".
Hamas also issued a warning to Gaza shopkeepers not to raise prices or stockpile goods. "We will take severe measures against these delinquent bands," a statement said.
The capture of Gaza by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hamas has set off alarm bells in Israel and the international community, further dashing prospects for peace in the Middle East.
However, Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal said his Islamic Resistance Movement was not seeking to take power in the territories and vowed to cooperate with Abbas.
Armed Palestinian militants loyal to President Mahmud Abbas patrol in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas signed early Sunday a decree appointing a new emergency cabinet, a source close to the leader said.(AFP/Awad Awad)
Palestinian militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, patrol the street in the West Bank city of Nablus, June 16, 2007. The United States plans to lift a ban on direct aid to the emergency government that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is forming following Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip, Washington's envoy said on Saturday. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters)
Morality aside, you have to be alive to spend your pay.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) attends Friday prayers at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah June 15, 2007. (Oleg Popov/Reuters)
The best emergency cabinet he can install is one he can hide in when Hamas comes for him. :)
Looks like he’s just about ready to HURL.
Looks like he’s just about ready to HURL.
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Yup.
Why on God’s green earth would anyone give the PLO another thin dime. If my memory serves me right, they were behind the murder of the Israel Olympic team, they’ve highjacked airplanes, they are behind countless suicide bombings in Israel, they’ve murdered and kidnapped Israeli citizens and they skimmed off all the previous aid into Swiss bank accounts. Is everyone smoking crack these days? I’m beginning to think so.
“Hamas also issued a warning to Gaza shopkeepers not to raise prices or stockpile goods. “We will take severe measures against these delinquent bands,” a statement said.”
Translated:
Everyone get ready for dirt to be the only food group.
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