Know More About Palestine



Saturday July 2, 2011 11:55 PM (EST+7)

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 2 (Ali Sawafta/Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas on Saturday to relent in a dispute over the formation of unity government for the Palestinians, saying their bid to become a U.N. member state in September was at stake.

Abbas's Western-backed Fateh movement and Islamist Hamas formally ended their four-year feud in April but remain split over the president's insistence that his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, head the proposed new cabinet of political independents.

We want to go to the United Nations united, and we have to understand, and Hamas and others have to understand, that this government isn't a nationalist government -- it is a technocrat government, Abbas told Voice of Palestine radio.

They (Hamas) do not understand that we are subject to very sensitive and fateful conditions. We are entering a very tough battle at the United Nations and they are thinking in terms of 'this minister is for us, and that minister is for you'.

Many Palestinians want factions to close ranks for the U.N. assembly in September, where their lobbying to be recognized as sovereign in lands Israel captured in the 1967 war with Egypt and Jordan looks set to win wide -- if symbolic -- support.

The United States has made clear it would veto any such resolution brought to the U.N. Security Council, denying Palestinians statehood status. But the deliberations will likely ramp up foreign pressure on Israel to compromise in peace talks.

Fateh insists the president can nominate his own prime minister and officials say in private that Abbas is eager to keep Fayyad, a respected former World Bank economist, to allay Western concerns over allying with Hamas.

Hamas, which is shunned by the West for spurning permanent coexistence with the Jewish state and having seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, wants a new figurehead for government and has been dismissive of the moves at the United Nations.

I told Hamas and others that Fayyad was simply a man of sufficient experience, and that he has been a prime minister and a minister of finance for years and that he was the right man for this stage, said Abbas, whose administration currently holds sway only in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

I want a government that pushes me forward, not one that takes me backward, he added, calling on Hamas to continue with the inter-factional negotiations. We will pursue our efforts and we will not say reconciliation has reached a dead end.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Michael Roddy)
WHAT'S NEW


BACKGROUND


POLLS


WAYS TO GET JMCC


CONTACT US


Subscribe

Al-Madaris St. (same building as
MBC and al-Arabiya studios)
First Floor, Al-Bireh
PO Box 4045, Ramallah
PO Box 25047, Jerusalem 97300
Phone: ++972-2-297-6555
Fax: ++972-2-297-6555
Log in to My JMCC
Email
Password
 or Sign Up
Forgot your password?Close
 My JMCC
Front Page
My Comments Photo of the Day
Calendar Hot Spot(for journalists)
Audio of the Day Video of the Day
Most Popular Historical Timeline
Noticeboard Blogs
My Tags Help Desk
  
User Info
First Name
Last Name
Email
My Tags 
I am a
After signing up,you will receive
an automatically
generated password in your
email.
Close
Recover Password
Submit Your Email
 or Sign Up
Close