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Incoming Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. (AP file)
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| By Associated Press March 18, 2006 |
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Hamas announced Saturday that it had completed the formation of its government, failing to bring in the moderate parties it had sought to soften its terrorist and militant image.
The narrow government to be presented by Hamas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting Sunday could increase the chances of international isolation and bring on crippling economic sanctions the World Bank says will devastate the poverty-stricken Palestinian territories.
Although Abbas will approve the Hamas government -- which does not include his Fatah Party -- he will warn them that their refusal to moderate their hard-line positions could "get them into trouble," Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said.
Hamas' Cabinet line up has not been made public, but officials in the Islamic group said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, would hold onto key posts, including the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
Abbas was elected separately and wields considerable authority. However, Abbas cannot impose his own Cabinet lineup on Hamas, which swept January parliament elections and controls an absolute majority in the legislature. Aides say Abbas does not want to cause a full-blown political crisis.
"Abu Mazen will not place obstacles before the Hamas government," Abu Rdeneh said.
The Palestinian parliament will not be asked to approve the new Hamas government until after Israel's March 28 election.
At a news conference Saturday, Hamas' Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh did not give details of his party's government platform or the names of the new Cabinet ministers, saying he would wait until after his meeting with Abbas to make the information public.
"I spoke on the phone with President Abbas last night," Haniyeh said at a news conference. "We have agreed to meet tomorrow evening in Gaza to present him the final government list."
"Following the deep consultations with all the factions, the movement has decided to move a step forward and to form the government," Haniyeh said. "The movement decided to leave the door open before all the factions that have not given their final decision, like our brothers in the PFLP."
The small radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is not expected to join Hamas' government. On Saturday, PFLP lawmaker Jamil Majdalawi said differences remained between Hamas and the PFLP.
Israel and the international community have said they will not have contact with a Hamas-led government unless the movement recognizes Israel, accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements and denounces violence. Hamas has so far rejected these conditions.
Mark Regev, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the international community must be united in demanding Hamas accept the conditions, which have U.N. backing.
"If they continue to reject the international community's benchmarks they will find the Palestinian Authority will increasingly become a pariah regime in the international community," Regev said.
The Palestinian Authority is highly dependent on foreign aid to prop up its economy, which has suffered a near fatal blow during five years of fighting with Israel.
Since Hamas' January victory, Israel has suspended monthly transfers of tax revenue it collects for the Palestinians each month. It says it doesn't want the money -- which totaled $740 million last year -- to reach militants.
Hamas' proposed Cabinet lineup was partially presented to The Associated Press by Hamas and PFLP officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the list is not official.
Mahmoud Zahar, a hard-line Hamas firebrand, will almost definitely be named Foreign Minister, the officials said.
Said Siyam, a popular Hamas lawmaker from Gaza, has been tapped for the Interior and Civil Affairs Ministries, which control three of the Palestinian's five security forces and is responsible for contacts with Israel's security services, the officials said.
Siyam, who is considered a relative moderate, was among hundreds of militants deported by Israel to south Lebanon in 1992. He recently joined a Hamas delegation to Moscow, where they met top Russian officials.
If the PFLP decides to join the Hamas government, it will be awarded the Finance Ministry, the officials said. If, as expected, the PFLP stays out of the government, Omar Abdel-Razek, a professor at Nablus' a-Najah University, will be named Finance Minister. Abdel-Razek was released from an Israeli prison just a few days ago.
In other developments Saturday, Israeli troops left a West Bank village after a failed overnight arrest raid.
At the start of the operation late Friday, an 8-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when soldiers fired at a car she was riding in with her older brother and uncle, Palestinian witnesses and relatives said. The witnesses said the soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and fired without warning.
On Saturday, the army said it was investigating the killing of the girl. Soldiers had closed off an area of the village around a house where fugitives were suspected be hiding, the army said. An initial inquiry found that the soldiers fired at the car's wheels when the driver did not follow orders to stop, the army said.
After the initial shooting, soldiers surrounded a house where they believed three militants were holed up, and an army bulldozer began demolishing the building. However, the fugitives escaped.
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