GAZA CITY, 17 April 2006 — Palestinian Premier Ismail Haniyeh urged the creation of a unity government in talks with heads of rival factions yesterday, less than a month after his Hamas-led administration took office. “The prime minister said that dialogue was still open, even for the creation of a national unity Cabinet,” government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told reporters.
Haniyeh met with representatives of factions such as the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Islamic Jihad, which has been conducting a series of rocket attacks against Israeli territory.
The new prime minister, who was sworn in as the head of a 24-strong team of ministers on March 29, tried in vain after his movement’s landslide election victory in January to set up a national unity government. However, his overtures were snubbed by all the other factions, including the former ruling Fatah faction which did not attend yesterday’s talks.
The European Union and United States have both cut funding to the Palestinian Authority this month and Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip in a bid to end the rocket attacks, resulting in the death of 18 Palestinians.
Khader Habib, who represented Islamic Jihad at the talks, refused to halt the attacks. “We agreed that we should organize the resistance” which he said was a Palestinian right.
Given its opposition to January’s elections, there is no prospect of Jihad joining the ranks of government. Fatah is highly unlikely to consider joining a unity government, happy to watch its old rivals struggle in power.
Relations have not been helped by recent moves by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to assert greater control over the security services. Hamad, however, played down talk of a rift between the Hamas-led government and the president of the authority.
Meanwhile, Iran is donating $50 million to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, to fill gaps left by Western aid cuts, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. The United States and the European Union have cut off aid to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government while Israel has frozen the transfer of approximately $50 million in tax and customs receipts. Iran’s contribution would make up that shortfall. “I am honored to announce that Iran has donated $50 million to help Palestinian nation,” Mottaki said in Tehran.
