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Abbas and Haniyeh agreed on the final make-up of the unity government. |
GAZA CITY — The long-awaited Palestinian national unity government finally saw the light on Thursday, March 15, after the two main coalition partners, Hamas and Fatah, cleared all hurdles and agreed on the new line-up.
"I have submitted the new government to President Mahmoud Abbas and he has accepted it," Premier-designate Ismail Haniyeh tolder reporters after a brief meeting with Abbas.
Haniyeh said a special session of the Palestinian Legislative Council will be held on Saturday to give the new government the vote of confidence.
He added that the new government could be sworn in by President Abbas on the same day.
Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement to form the unity government on Thursday, February 8, during two-day crisis talks in the Saudi holy city of Makkah.
The outgoing Hamas-led, which took office in March last year, was boycotted by the European Union, the US and Israel.
An aid-freeze championed by the US and subscribed to by Europe left the government almost bankrupt and unable to pay hundreds of thousands of civil servants for as many months.
The Palestinians hope the new unity government will ease the crippling aid embargo.
Portfolios
The final cabinet deal was hammered out after Abbas and Haniyeh settled on the nominee for the influential interior ministry portfolio.
Hani al-Qawasmeh, an independent believed to be close to Hamas, has been nominated to take the influential interior ministry.
Born in Gaza City in 1958, Qawasmeh attended school in the Gaza Strip before studying law in Cairo university.
He returned to Gaza in 1983 and worked for ten years in a religious institute before joining the civil affairs ministry for seven years.
The outgoing government had appointed Qawasmeh as director general of administrative affairs in the interior ministry, an appointment never ratified by Abbas.
Azzam al-Ahmad, the leader of Fatah's parliamentary bloc and a close adviser to Abbas, would be named deputy prime minister.
As previously announced, pro-Western economist Salam Fayyad will be finance minister.
Fayyad, a former World Bank official, served in the same post in two Fatah governments headed by Ahmed Qorei and Abbas.
Ziad Abu Amr, a political science professor with a PHD from the US, will serve as the foreign minister.
Born in Gaza City, Amr is the current chair of the parliament's political committee and the head of the Palestinian Foreign Relations Council.
Mustafa al-Barghuthi, an independent, will be the new information minister.
Barghuthi, who came second in the presidential elections after Abbas, was the key mediator between Fatah and Hamas in their on-and-off negotiations to bridge political gaps.
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