Hamas Cabinet Ready, Zahar Tipped for FM Post

GAZA CITY, March 18, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Hamas has completed forming the new Palestinian cabinet and chosen senior members to hold the key portfolios.

Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a top Hamas leader and the head of the group's parliamentary bloc, will serve as the new top diplomat, sources close to the resistance movement told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, March 18.

MP Sayed Siam, a prominent Hamas figure, will be the new interior minister and will supervise all three Palestinian security agencies, largely comprised of Fatah loyalists, they added.

Hamas sources earlier told Reuters that Omar Abdel-Razeq, a prominent West Bank economics professor and Hamas election official, to the key post of finance minister.

They added that Hamas was expected to name an independent to be the economy minister.

The new line-up will feature seven Hamas members in addition to 14 independents and technocrats, according to Al-Jazeera news channel.

Khalil Abu Lila, member of Hamas’s politburo, told IOL on February 4 that a new government of technocrats was ready if other parties refused to join a coalition government.

Hamas has sought a broad national unity government but after nearly four weeks of coalition talks since its January election victory, no other faction has agreed to join.

Western diplomatic sources said Monday, March 13, that the Bush administration warned Fatah and other parties of strict restrictions on contacts and assistance if they joined a Hamas-led government.

Meeting

Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya on Friday night, March 17, sent Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas a letter asking for a meeting to submit his government list.

Haniya asked Abbas "for a meeting to give him all the names and the (political) program," Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The meeting will take place today or tomorrow, but that depends on Abu Mazen," he said, using Abbas's nom de guerre.

Abbas's office in Ramallah confirmed the meeting would take place in the next 24 hours.

Abbas asked Haniya four weeks ago to form a cabinet after the election result, which gave Hamas 74 of the 132 seats in the parliament, against 45 for Fatah.

The Palestinian leader has given Hamas until March 28 -- the same day as parliamentary elections in Israel -- to complete its line-up.

The United States and the European Union have threatened to slash funding to the Palestinian Authority once a Hamas-led government is in place.

A new World Bank report warned on Thursday, March 16, that cutting aid to the PA would push the West Bank and Gaza Strip into deep economic depression and double the unemployment rate by 2008.

International Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn has warned that the PA, which is dependent on foreign aid, risks a financial collapse within two weeks.