Acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas has reappointed Salam Feyadh as caretaker Prime Minister, after the cabinet members resigned en masse earlier Monday.
“Mahmoud Abbas on Monday charged Salam Feyadh with forming a new government which will be charged with the most important mission of responding to calls for presidential, legislative and municipal elections,” an official statement said on Monday.
“President Abbas said the new government should concentrate its efforts on mobilizing its energies to prepare national institutions for the establishment of an independent state of Palestine before the deadline of next September,” it added.
Earlier, Feyadh presented his Cabinet’s resignation to Abbas at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
According to the statement, Abbas has asked Feyadh to start his consultations with political parties to form the new cabinet, AFP reported.
Some ministers are expected to keep their jobs while others will be replaced, the official said late Sunday.
The PA on Saturday announced plans to hold legislative and presidential elections by September.
However, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum rejected the call, saying the resistance movement would neither take part in the polls nor recognize the results.
He warned PA officials that they could suffer the same fate as the rulers of Egypt and Tunisia, who were ousted by popular revolutions.
"These elections are illegal because they are not determined by any law, and Hamas will not legitimize them," he said, adding that Abbas and Feyadh lacked the legitimacy to declare elections.
"Elections should be held in accordance with Palestinian national consensus, the result of a reconciliation agreement, not as a step taken by the one party which controls every Palestinian issue," Barhoum said.
Abbas, who has been the head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority since 2004, has refused to leave office despite the expiry of his mandate in 2009.
Abbas’ credibility has further deteriorated after talks with Israel collapsed last September when Tel Aviv refused to freeze the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
(Press TV)
