 President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday asked Hamas to form the next Palestinian government and said he expected it to respect a commitment to talks with Israel. Abbas said in a speech at the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament that the government must follow all agreements signed with Israel, a state the militant Islamist group formally seeks to destroy. "The Hamas movement has become the majority in the Legislative Council and it will be tasked with the formation of the new government," Abbas said. |