June 15, 2007
Abbas Picks New PM Amid Gaza Chaos
After officially disbanding the defunct unity government, Fatah-allied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today named Finance Minister Salam Fayyad as the new prime minister of the emergency government. Abbas dismissed Hamas-allied Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who rejected the move and said he would not leave his post.
It has been a bad several days for Abbas' government. Bloody fighting has killed more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Fatah fighters were executed in the streets.
And new photos released to the media this morning show masked men with machine guns overrunning the presidential compound in Gaza City, tearing pictures of Abbas and longtime Fatah leader Yasser Arafat off the walls. (Fatah guards surrendered the compound without the resistance that many had expected; Abbas is holed up in his office in the West Bank, which is now politically divided from the Gaza Strip.)
One photo documents a masked man sitting down at Abbas' desk and making an imaginary phone call to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Reuters reports that the man, using Abbas' nickname, said into the phone: "Hello Condoleezza Rice. You have to deal with me now, there is no Abu Mazen any more."
Rice had called Abbas yesterday to reiterate U.S. support for a moderate government.
Today, Hamas did extend something of an olive branch and offered amnesty to Fatah leaders, which signals a willingness to work with the now-defeated moderate government.
But even if Fatah cooperates, without the support of the West it is unclear how Hamas will be able to govern the embattled region. Israel and Egypt closed their borders with the Gaza Strip, sealing off deliveries of humanitarian supplies. The United States and other Western powers, worried about a potential Iran-backed government, have in the past deemed Hamas a terrorist organization and refused to cooperate with its leaders -- meaning aid to the region could be cut off for good.
Posted at 10:57 AM
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Middle East, Palestinians
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