A Palestinian national coalition government is likely to be
formed before the end of August, Palestinian sources revealed on
Thursday.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the
government would be consisting of 25 members with the participation
of all Palestinian political groups including the Islamic Jihad
(Holy War), which didn't take part in January's parliamentary
elections.
Forming a new Palestinian coalition government was essential to
overcome a crisis worsened after Israel arrested eight Palestinian
ministers and at least 20 lawmakers including Aziz Dweik, Speaker
of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from the governing
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the West Bank.
Israel said that they were arrested because the Palestinian
militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25 in a
cross-border raid.
Hamas and Fatah movement will lead the government in rotation,
said the sources, adding that, Hamas, however, demanded the
coalition government to be headed only by a Hamas prime
minister.
The sources expected that Hamas would get seven ministries in
the new government while Fatah would get six.
The new coalition government would be based on the Prisoners'
Document of National Accordance which calls for a Palestinian
statehood alongside Israel and calls also on keeping the resistance
against Israel inside the territories of what would be the future
Palestinian state.
On Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that
he started consultations with his Hamas Prime Minister Ismail
Haneya on forming a new national unity government.
Hamas, which overwhelmingly won the January legislative
elections, failed to form a national coalition government and had
alone formed a government in late March.
However, some lawmakers had argued that the parliament would not
approve any new government as long as the lawmakers and the Speaker
of the PLC Aziz Dweik remained held in Israel.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2006)
