Ramallah: Economist Mohammad Shtayyeh, a member of the West Bank’s dominant Fatah party, was named Palestinian Prime Minister on Sunday in what the rival Hamas group called a blow to unity efforts.
The appointment was announced six weeks after Rami al-Hamdallah tendered his resignation from the post and the resignation of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring the failure of Hamas and Fatah to implement a power-sharing deal.
Speaking to Palestine Television, Shtayyeh said he would immediately begin consultations with factions belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which Abbas heads, on forming a new cabinet.
Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since seizing the enclave from Fatah in 2007, is not a member of the PLO. Ismail Rudwan, a senior official in the Islamist group, said the creation of “a separatist government … will prolong Palestinian division”.
Shtayyeh’s immediate challenge is to shore up the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule under interim peace accords with Israel.
The Palestinian Authority has been squeezed by steep US aid cuts, with the cash crisis exacerbated by a dispute with Israel over the withholding of some 5 per cent of the monthly tax revenues it transfers to the Authority.
Read the article by Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi in The Sydney Morning Herald (Reuters).