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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas MPs Meet, Slam Abbas in Sign of Palestinian Rifts |
| 2015-01-15 |
| [An Nahar] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, MPs in Gazoo held an exclusive meeting on Wednesday apparently defying the Paleostinian Authority and criticized president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , in a further sign of a failing unity pact. They were meeting for the first time since the April unity deal, which ostensibly put an end to years of infighting between Gazoo rulers Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party. Even months after Hamas and the Fatah-dominated PLO -- which in turn dominates the PA -- appointed a mutually-agreed central government, disputes that emerged shortly after the deal appear to be worsening. "Neither the president nor anyone else can forbid parliament from meeting," Hamas MP Salah al-Bardaweel said in a symbolic statement. Hamas holds 78 of the Paleostinian parliament's 132 seats, and 25 of its MPs live in the Gazoo Strip. Another 20 non-Hamas MPs live in Gazoo, but did not attend the meeting. Last year's reconciliation pact was meant to pave the way for Paleostinian general elections by the end of 2014, and to hand over control of Gazoo in the interim from Hamas to the unity government, which took oath early June. But there have been no sign of elections or a real transfer of power, despite Hamas' stated willingness to relinquish its authority. Senior Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar, also present, said the new government was a "failure". "We send a clear message: either the government must take up its responsibilities or resign," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |