[News] Palestine National Unity Government, the devil is in the details

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The first national unity government is on its way

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=991&Itemid=1

(Qalqilia) Palestine News Network
Monday, 13 November 2006

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The first national unity government is on its way, but the devil is 
in the details as the saying goes. This will be government number 10 
with ministers distributed between all national parties in the Gaza 
Strip and West Bank.

Hamas will take the largest share of the cabinet as the major 
parliamentary bloc after winning January's Legislative Council 
elections. The new prime minister will be a Hamas member, as is 
current Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

A high ranking official in Hamas told PNN that the party will have 12 
ministers, with seven in the West Bank and and five in the Gaza Strip.

The Minister of the Interior will be Hamas and the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs Fateh. Other high ministry positions will be agreed 
upon among all of the parties. The proposed Deputy Prime Minister is 
Hamas and will be divided between two people; one in the West Bank 
and one in the Gaza Strip.

A source in Fateh who wished to remain anonymous told PNN, "Hamas 
proposed to President Abbas that the number of ministers in the Gaza 
Strip exceed the number from the West Bank, but the President 
rejected the request because the population of the Gaza Strip is just 
39 percent of the total."

He added that Fateh believes the Minister of the Interior must be 
Fateh saying that security problems will prevail as most a Hamas 
member cannot control security because most of the security forces 
are Fateh members.

A source referring to Hamas' current Interior Ministry which 
established the Executive Forces that continually clashed with all of 
the other Fateh security bodies said, "Hamas fears for the future of 
Executive Forces that were recently established by the Interior 
Minister in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the 1,500 member force it 
is moving towards in the West Bank."

A source close to President Abbas and former Prime Minister Ahmed 
Qureia said, "Hamas wants to leave the Minstry of Foreign Affairs to 
Fateh because they know there were problems between President Mahmoud 
Abbas and Farouk Qadumi. It wants to get rid of this painful issue. 
In addition, the Minister would have no luck attracting funds under siege."

Regarding the speech of President Abbas, who was expected to remove 
the current government, the Fateh source said, "President Abbas is 
under enormous pressure from the United States. In order to not 
appear vulnerable he added a sentence geared toward the Americans and 
the European Union because he refused to be recorded in history as 
the one who sparked a civil war."

The source added that when he talked to President Abbas regarding a 
time frame for the unity government the President said that with good 
intentions the government could be ready within a week, but if not, 
if they are bogged down by details, discussions will go through the 
rest of the year.


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