Abbas swears in new Palestinian govt

A new Palestinian government, again headed by Western-backed Salam Fayyad, was sworn in on Tuesday.

The new cabinet took the oath of office at the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Ten of the 23 ministers are Fatah members and the remainder belong to other groups, but none to Hamas, which said it would not recognize the new government.

Riyad al-Malki will retain the foreign affairs portfolio in the new cabinet, and four ministries, including tourism and education, will be headed by women.

The ceremony came a day after the secular Fatah faction of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the rival Hamas adjourned a fifth round of talks in Egypt without agreeing on a unity deal.

The rival factions have been at loggerheads since Hamas forces ousted Abbas loyalists from the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

The U.S.-educated Fayyad announced on March 7 that he had submitted his resignation to pave the way for a "national consensus" between the two groups. Fayyad is a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund employee who won accolades in the West for his anti-corruption measures during his stint as Palestinian finance minister.

Agree to disagree

Meanwhile, Egyptian efforts to reconcile the opposed factions have repeatedly been unsuccessful since Fatah and Hamas were unable to surmount their political differences on the composition and obligations of a proposed unity government.

Salah al-Bardawil, spokesman for Hamas's parliamentary bloc, said any agreement on the formation of a new security force as part of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks would have to apply to all the occupied territories.

"The correct way to address the security issue is to rehabilitate the security apparatus in the West Bank and Gaza on a basis of professionalism and patriotism," he said in a statement posted on a Hamas-affiliated website.

"Any deal that limits an agreement on security forces to the Gaza Strip clearly means giving a certificate of good conduct to the security services in the West Bank and their role in fighting the resistance," he said.

Amr Souleiman, head of the Egyptian intelligence service , announced in a statement yesterday the sixth and final round of talks will be held in July of this year as a final attempt to reach an agreement on the suggested joint Fatah-Hamas security force which Hamas has rejected, as well as joint factional committee proposed by Egypt.

Analysts not hopeful

However experts on Arab-Israeli affairs are not hopeful anything will be resolved in the final meeting.

"My guess is the coming talks will be more of the same, with nothing resolved and more time wasted, unfortunately," Emad Gad, Arab-Israeli relations expert at the Ahram Foundation, told Al Arabiya.

Gad said the main problem in the talks is political rivalry between factions, none of which seems ready to compromise to break the deadlock.

While the Fatah government demands that any unity government must abide by past peace accords, Hamas insists that the new government must break free from such accords since they involve official recognition of Israel.

"When you have two parties that refuse to give up any political power or independence to move ahead, you cannot really resolve anything," Gad said.

Agreement between the two Palestinian factions is vital for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated by Israel's 22-day offensive in December and January that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Waheed abdul Magid, political analyst at the al-Ahram Center think tank, said that failure to create a unity government means Hamas risks losing out on reconstruction funds for Gaza.

"Internal divisions will also put Hamas in a critical position when it comes to who will be responsible for building Gaza," Magid told Al Arabiya.

International donor countries pledged $4.5 billion to the Palestinian Authority at a conference in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in March, much of it for the reconstruction of Gaza.

But many donor countries refuse to channel their funds via Hamas, insisting Abbas' government must supervise the spending.

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