GAZA CITY
Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Friday that it had consented to West Bank-based Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki keeping his portfolio in the incoming Palestinian national unity government despite the group's "reservations."
"Hamas disapproved of al-Maliki as foreign minister in the beginning, but we got passed this – albeit with reservations – because we don't want the issue to hinder reconciliation [with rival faction Fatah]," Moussa Abu Marzouq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told Anadolu Agency.
Yet, he said, Hamas had rejected a proposal by Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to abolish the Prisoners Ministry.
"The U.S. administration has pressured Abbas to scrap the Prisoners Ministry from the next government because it [the U.S.] believes the ministry channels funds to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails – prisoners they consider terrorists," he added.
Hamas, he went on, had refused to abolish the ministry, which, he said, was responsible for over 5000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails.
He added that the new government line-up would be unveiled next Monday or Tuesday.
On April 23, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which rules the occupied West Bank, hammered out a reconciliation deal with a view to ending the rifts that have marred their relations since 2007.
The deal calls for the formation of a national unity government to serve until legislative and presidential polls can be held in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The unity government was expected to be unveiled earlier this week, but differences over the foreign affairs portfolio have delayed the announcement.
Fatah and Hamas earlier agreed to name West Bank premier Rami Hamdallah as prime minister of the new unity government.
By Hani al-Shaer
www.aa.com.tr/en
