Abbas to swear in new cabinet despite talks with Hamas

Mon May 11, 2009 4:59pm EDT

(Adds details, byline)

By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 11 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to swear in a new cabinet on Tuesday, to be headed by the outgoing prime minister, Salam Fayyad, officials of Abbas's Fatah movement said on Monday.

"The ministers will be sworn in by Abbas tomorrow," Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to the U.S.-backed Abbas, told Reuters of a plan that could complicate the scheduled resumption this week of power-share talks between Fatah and Hamas Islamists.

The new cabinet is widely expected to bring members of secular Fatah into government for the first time since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, when Abbas responded by disbanding the Hamas-led unity government.

Fatah members had been angry that Fayyad, a former World Bank economist had been running Palestinian finances without them, and had pressured Abbas to give them some cabinet posts.

Fayyad resigned as prime minister in March after diplomats said he had been frustrated by his critics within Fatah and a lack of progress in peace talks with Israel. He then stayed on for weeks at Abbas's request.

Hamas criticised Abbas's plan to name a cabinet at this time as an attempt to strengthen his ranks and undermine power-sharing talks due to resume in Cairo on May 16 between the Islamists and secular Fatah, which dominates the occupied West Bank.

The two groups have sought for months in on-again off-again talks hosted by Egypt to heal their rift. The negotiations have been complicated by Hamas's refusal to take steps it needs to end a Western aid boycott such as recognising Israel.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called Abbas's plan "a preemptive step that does not foretell good and implies bad intentions" on his (Abbas's) part.

Fatah officials countered the new cabinet would be largely a reshuffle of the former government, that it would serve only in an interim capacity and resign if a power-sharing deal was reached with Hamas, or a new election, scheduled for 2010, was held. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza) (Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Williams) (For blogs and links on Palestinian and Israeli politics go to blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)



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