Abbas swears in ministers: Haniya dismisses border plan
GAZA, March 29: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas swore in a Hamas government on Wednesday, handing the militant group an administration on the brink of financial collapse and fighting Western isolation.
The ceremony came a day after the centrist Kadima Party of interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won Israel’s elections on a platform of imposing the Jewish state’s final borders with the Palestinians by dismantling remote settlements in the West Bank.
The 24-member Palestinian cabinet is dominated by Hamas loyalists after other factions, including Mr Abbas’s long-dominant Fatah movement, refused to join following the militant group’s shock victory in elections in January.
Ministers swore an oath on the holy Quran against the backdrop of portraits of Mr Abbas and late leader Yasser Arafat.
Those in the West Bank city of Ramallah took part in the ceremony by video link to Gaza, where Mr Abbas presided over the swearing-in, because of Israeli travel curbs on Hamas officials.
Hamas has said talks with Israel would be a waste of time and has stepped up rhetoric against the Jewish state since Ismail Haniyeh, the new prime minister, made a conciliatory speech to parliament on Monday.
Threatened aid cuts could make it more difficult for Hamas to pay the salaries of an estimated 140,000 Palestinian Authority workers, including security personnel. Aid groups say a funding crisis could lead to chaos and violence.
The Palestinian Authority relies on more than $1 billion in foreign aid each year.
Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis since 2000, but has largely abided by a year-old truce.
BORDER PLAN: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has rejected a plan by Israel’s prime minister-elect Ehud Olmert to unilaterally redraw the borders of the Jewish state.
“The Palestinian people cannot accept Olmert’s plan to fix the borders unilaterally,” said Mr Haniya.
He also called on Israel to take ‘courageous steps’ to allow an ‘entirely Sovereign’ Palestinian state to come into being with occupied Al Quds as its capital.
“We want stability, calm and a complete, just and lasting peace,” he said.
Aziz al Dweik, the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, slammed Israel’ ruling Kadima party.
“Kadima is the worst party in Israel even if some of them are considered a moderate party. It thinks it’s the only player in the region,” Mr Dweik said.
“Its victory signals the continued injustice to which the Palestinian people are victim because it leans towards the same unilateral policy of (comatose outgoing Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon,” he added.
“Israel wants to impose unilateral solutions and it is pointless to talk with it because it believes we do not exist.”
Mr Olmert has vowed to separate Israel from the Palestinians through redrawing the borders of the state, withdrawing thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank while holding on to the largest settlement blocs. —AFP
