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Abbas asks Fayyad to form new Cabinet
[Arab News] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas on Monday reappointed Salam Fayyad as prime minister and asked him to form a new government, in an apparent attempt to stave off any unrest in the Paleostinian territories.Earlier on Monday, Fayyad resigned and dissolved his cabinet in a major political shake-up ahead of Paleostinian elections to be held by September. However, The infamous However... Abbas immediately reinstated him as premier and tasked him with forming the new government. "Abbas reappointed Fayyad and asked him to form a new government," an official said. Sources said that the new government will be formed within two weeks. The sources added that Fayyad will hold consultations with the majority of Paleostinian political factions to include them in his new Cabinet. The new government will also have to tackle plans for holding presidential and parliamentary elections by September -- a deadline which was announced on Saturday by the executive committee of the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO). Last week, the cabinet also approved plans to hold local elections on July 9, in what will be the first time Paleostinians have gone to the polls since 2006. But both announcements were firmly rejected by Gazoo's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rulers, who have been locked in years of bitter rivalry with the Ramallah-based Paleostinian Authority of Abbas, which is dominated by the Fatah movement. "This procedure is invalid because president Abbas has no legitimacy and is not fit to organize such elections," Hamas front man Fawzi Barhum said. Ahmad Al-Majdalani, the outgoing labor minister, said the reshuffle will target at least half of the ministries. Al-Majdalani added that most of the key portfolios would be under the reshuffle, including the foreign, health, economy, labor, justice, finance and information ministries. Other Paleostinian sources said that the new government would focus on implementing a series of recent decisions by the Paleostinian leadership aimed at ending internal split and promoting national unity with Hamas movement. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-15 |
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