PA acting premier to lead unity government: Officials

Palestinian Authority’s (PA) caretaker Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has secured a consensus between two main political factions of Hamas and Fatah to lead the new Palestinian unity government.

On April 23, the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which includes the Fatah, reached a reconciliation deal to resolve their differences.

Under the deal, Hamas and Fatah are to form a unity government within five weeks and hold national elections six months later.

“The government is nearly ready and Rami Hamdallah will be prime minister,” AFP quoted a Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying on Thursday.

Hamdallah has been the acting PA prime minister since last June, when he replaced the former premier, Salam Fayyad.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas “informed Mr. Hamdallah yesterday (Wednesday) that he would head the government,” the official added.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said the resistance movement “had no objection” to the decision.

Naim added that Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of Fatah, would arrive in the besieged Gaza Strip from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday to “finalize consultations” on the government.

The new Palestinian administration is expected to end a seven-year rift between Fatah and Hamas.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006. The dispute marginalized Hamas government to the Gaza Strip. Fatah, however, set up headquarters in Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

The Israeli regime reacted to reconciliation among the Palestinians by canceling the so-called peace talks with the Palestinian Authority and threatening sanctions against it.