Haniyeh vows to continue role from Gaza
CAIRO: Egypt has expressed full support for the newly sworn in emergency government in Palestine led by Sallam Fayyad, said a statement by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Aboul Gheit said he “wished Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and members of his cabinet success in the tremendous responsibility they shoulder in these critical times in the Palestinian territories.
He urged all the Palestinian factions to support the interim government and respect the unity of Palestinian institutions to protect the interests of the Palestinian people.
Diaa Rashwan from Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies had told The Daily Star Egypt that events in Palestine are of interest to Egypt on the national security front.
“This is a national security issue for Egypt, he said, “there has been a mini-war and the current situation is frankly worrying.
The new members of cabinet took the constitutional oath in front of beleaguered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank on Sunday.
Eleven ministers have already been appointed, with further additions to be made at a later date according to Secretary General of the Palestinian Presidency Tayyeb Abdel Rehim.
Sallam Fayyad will be Prime Minister as well as Foreign and Finance Minister. The Interior Ministry, which caused the downfall of the Fatah-Hamas unity government, will be run by Abdel Razaq El-Yahia.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh deemed his dismissal as illegal and has vowed to continue as Prime Minister in Gaza.
Abbas had signed a decree that enabled this emergency government to take office without parliamentary approval.
Fayyad is a former World Bank economist and was an independent MP and Finance Minister in the recently dissolved unity government.
Abbas dissolved the National Unity Government after intense fighting broke out between the two ruling factions and Gaza fell to Hamas. One hundred people were killed in the past week.
As it stands, Hamas, which was elected into power in early 2006, controls the Gaza Strip while Fatah is entrenched in the West Bank.
Journalist and veteran of the Middle East for more than three decades Robert Fisk wrote in the weekend issue of The Independent: “We didn t like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.
He added: “No one asked – on our side – which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds – and goes on building – vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 percent of ‘Palestine’ still left to negotiate over? .
