Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Meshal

"LandepNews"

Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Meshal

The leaders of the Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah on Monday announced that they have formed an interim unity government, which is to be led at first by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.

The move comes at the end of talks the leader of the Palestinian Authority had with the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, in the capital of Qatar, Doha. The agreement to build an unity government was transmitted from Doha live across the region, being considered a significant step toward reconciliation.

Reports say that before they agreed to cooperate in a unity government, Hamas and Fatah replaced incumbent Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the man that represented a guarantee for Israel to continue to fund the Palestinian Authority. It was not clear whether Fayyad would be member in the new government.

Hamas and Fatah had a tense relation in the past, after the Islamist movement won elections in the Gaza Strip and chased out the Fatah presence from it, restricting Abbas’s authority to the West Bank alone.

Attempts to create a unity government existed in the past, but were met with misgiving, and distrust until the situation in the region began to change radically, leaving Hamas without a political support from Syria. The headquarters from Damascus have been evacuated and the leaders of Hamas returned to the territories.

When the two sides agreed in Cairo to form a unity government last year, and to participate in general elections as a single force, Israel declared that it was a terrible day for democracy, and a victory of the terrorism.

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza following the elections that brought Hamas to power, and said that the blockade would continue until Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization, is removed from power.

Hamas does not recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist and does not favor the idea of a political understanding with the Israelis. For that reason, Israel has declared that it would not cooperate with any unity government of the Palestinians unless Hamas recognizes the right of Israel to exist.

The move comes as the Palestinian Authority and Israel ended a five-round negotiation in Jordan with a stalemate, after Israel proposed as borders with the Palestinian state-to-be the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank, with East Jerusalem and the settlements in the West Bank in the new territory of Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas said that the proposition made by Israel was in fact the recognition of the Israeli occupation, and therefore was unacceptable.

Thank's for link: