A new Palestinian cabinet of "technocrats" could ease the crippling Israeli and international blockade of the existing Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, a senior minister has suggested. Sameer Abu-Eisheh, the acting Finance Minister and Planning Minister in Ismail Haniyeh's increasingly beleaguered administration, said that one option was for Mr Haniyeh and his cabinet to step down in favour of a non-aligned ministerial team of independent experts.
| Is 'technocrat' the preferred term for a terrorist who can also do something else? |
The cabinet was ready to form a "national unity" government under Mr Haniyeh if it could be agreed, he said, and added: "There are alternatives. The technocrat government, for example, is an option. Nobody ruled it out." Dr Abu-Eisheh who, though sympathetic to Hamas, is not a member and said he was not speaking for the faction, said such a government would "make it easier" for the international community to start lifting the blockade.
Fatah and Hamas remain in deadlock over talks designed to bring in the "national unity" government as a means of easing a blockade which has left Palestinian Authority employees without salaries for six months. In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian police and security officers, some firing rifles into the air, upturned rubbish bins, burnt tyres and broke up concrete slabs to block Gaza City's main roads in protest at the delays in salary payments. |