Haniyeh to Form Unity Gov`t in 3 Weeks

Source: Alalam.ir, 16-2-2007
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories--Palestinian prime minister designate Ismail Haniyeh said Friday he hoped to form a new broad-based government within three weeks.
"I hope to present the new government to the Legislative Council (parliament) before the initial expiry date in three weeks," Haniyeh announced during a sermon he delivered at Friday prayers in a Gaza City mosque.
"From tomorrow we are going to proceed with consultations with the factions, the parliamentary groups and the independents to form the unity government."
A senior official in his office said contacts with the various parliamentary representations had already begun overnight.
Haniyeh resigned, along with the rest of his Hamas-led government, late Thursday after 11 months in power, only to be re-commissioned by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas with forming a unity administration.
He has three weeks, with an extra two weeks` grace, to form and win parliamentary approval for a cabinet that Palestinians hope will end infighting that has left 100 people dead since December and a Western aid boycott.
Under the terms of a power-sharing accord signed by Abbas and Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal in Saudi Arabia on February 8, Hamas will take 10 cabinet posts including Haniyeh, Abbas`s Fatah faction six, and others four.
The key finance ministry will go to Salam Fayad from the Third Way party, and the foreign ministry to independent MP Ziad Abu Amr, a moderate who was elected with Hamas backing.
The administration, which will put Fatah and Hamas in the same cabinet for the first time, seeks to end the political and financial crises that have gripped the territories since Haniyeh`s Hamas-led government took office on March 28.
The Zionist regime and the West boycotted the government after Hamas took office following a victory in democratic elections in January 2006 mainly because the party refused to recognize the Zionist regime.