Dr. Sa'di al-Krunz, Chief of the Cabinet and Head of PM Office, said Dr. Salam Fayyad, Head of the caretaker government, started as of yesterday intensive consultations to form his new government as he is now the PM Elect. Al-Krunz said: According to the Basic Law, the PM Elect will request as soon as he concludes the formation of the new government within the legal period from the PLC to hold a special session so that he can present the 13th government to get the confidence vote, stressing that according to provisions of Article (66) clause (1) of the Palestinian Basic Law, the PLC is bound constitutionally to hold a session within a maximum period of one week as of the date of receiving the request.

President Abbas accepted last night the resignation of the emergency government and commissioned Fayyad to form a new government and the caretaker government will continue to work until concluding the legal procedures of the 13th government.

The Assistant to US Secretary of State on European Affairs Daniel Fried said in an interview published yesterday that the mission of the Quartet Committee Special Envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair is to assist the PA in establishing a real Palestinian state. Fried told a Portuguese newspaper: the PA formed most probably the best government in its history headed by President Abbas and a competent PM. There is no obstacle now to cooperate with him but he lacks capabilities and we must assist him to establish the institutions and provide the capabilities to become a real state, this is what Blair has to do. Holding contacts with Hamas is meaningless. What can we do with Hamas? I don’t say that we must ignore the people of Gaza; we have a moral obligation on humanitarian assistance but I don’t see any point in contacting Hamas. I think the idea of establishing an international force in the Palestinian lands is premature. We have first to achieve what is possible and later we can study this possibility.

Published at Al Quds NewsPaper on July 15, 2007