Abbas says Hamas blocks unity agreement

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday accused the Islamic Hamas movement of putting obstacles on the way of national reconciliation.

Abbas said that Hamas put the obstacles by refusing his nominee to lead a technocratic government that would be formed to administer the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank, ruled by Abbas's Fatah party.

Salam Fayyad, the West Bank-based prime minister, "is my only candidate," Abbas told Voice of Palestine Radio over the phone from Amman.

"Fayyad is an independent and experienced" leader, Abbas said.

In May, Fatah and Hamas signed an Egyptian-brokered agreement to reconcile and end political split that started when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza in 2007.

Hamas says that Fayyad, who was sworn in immediately after the Gaza takeover, was a symbol of the division era and that the new government should be made of professional, apolitical figures.

"It is not going to be a national unity government, it is a technocratic government with special tasks," Abbas explained, adding that Hamas "has not understood this."

The transitional government will prepare for presidency, parliamentary and national elections within a year after its formation and would be tasked to rebuild Gaza.

Fayyad, a Western-respected economist, is believed to be able to succeed promoting the government to the international community that doesn't recognize Hamas.

Meanwhile, Abbas said that 130 countries will recognize a Palestinian state on the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967 within a month.

He reiterated that the Palestinians are determined to go to the United Nations in September to seek recognition of their state, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

But Abbas revealed that there were pressures on the Palestinian leadership to cancel its drive to the UN. "The world is not united and there are many who believe that there is no wisdom in this step and they try to thwart it," Abbas said.

Israel and the United States say the recognition of the Palestinian state should follow a peace agreement in the Middle East, but the Palestinians took this decision in response to the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank last year.

English.news.cn   2011-07-02 18:10:05 FeedbackPrintRSS
RAMALLAH, June 2 (Xinhua)