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Hamas to announce Abbas replacement in January
Hamas plans to appoint a new Palestinian Authority president in January at the end of Mahmoud Abbas' four-year term, according to Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. Hindi said the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Sheikh Aziz al-Dweik, will probably be named to the post. Dweik is currently jailed in Israel. A fierce disagreement erupted recently between Hamas and Fatah regarding when Abbas' term is to end. Hamas claims the president's tenure ends on January 9, 2009 while Fatah argues that it is supposed to continue until January 9, 2010. Fatah bases its claim on an amendment to the election law stipulating that the presidential and parliamentary elections are to be held together, and the parliamentary elections are scheduled for January 2010. Hindi said that if the groups cannot reach an agreement by January, Hamas will declare Dweik, one of the organization's senior figures in the West Bank, to be president. As speaker of the parliament, Dweik is the president's successor in the event of the latter's death, illness or resignation. Since Dweik has been in detention in Israel since shortly after the abduction of Gilad Shalit in June 2006, however, his appointment is mainly seen as a statement aimed at goading Abbas. In a related matter, Hamas recently announced new conditions for renewing its negotiations with Fatah. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said his organization is demanding that all of its prisoners being held in PA jails be released, that a delegation of West Bank-based Hamas leaders be allowed to travel to Cairo for the talks, that Hamas and Fatah be given equal weight at the Cairo summit, that Abbas attend the sessions and that the Egyptians accede to Hamas' demand to amend the reconciliation agreement they proposed to both organizations. By laying down these conditions, Hamas is in effect rejecting the renewal of the talks in the short run, in favor of waiting for anticipated changes in the region. Posted by: ryuge 2008-11-20 |
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