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Mahmoud Abbas to head interim Palestinian government | Mahmoud Abbas to head interim Palestinian government |
(40 minutes later) | |
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will head a Palestinian unity government after a second meeting with rival Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. | Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will head a Palestinian unity government after a second meeting with rival Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. |
The interim government is to prepare polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. | The interim government is to prepare polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. |
Mr Abbas and Mr Meshaal have been holding talks in Qatar over the reconciliation deal reached in April 2011 and who would head the government. | Mr Abbas and Mr Meshaal have been holding talks in Qatar over the reconciliation deal reached in April 2011 and who would head the government. |
Correspondents say the issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to implementing the April agreement. | Correspondents say the issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to implementing the April agreement. |
Fatah and Hamas were supposed to put forward an independent figure, but after failing to agree, they have come up with what many will see as something of a fudge: Mahmoud Abbas will now serve as both president and prime minister, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Ramallah. | |
Mr Abbas leads the Palestinian nationalist movement Fatah. Hamas, which is strongly Islamist, had previously rejected such an idea. | |
The government will be made up of technocrats and independents, reports say. | The government will be made up of technocrats and independents, reports say. |
Mr Abbas has said the two sides are serious about political unity. | |
Israel, which regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation, is strongly opposed to Palestinian reconciliation. | |
May polls? | |
The April deal sought to end more than four years of separate governments in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and the West Bank, areas of which are governed by Mr Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority. | |
As part of the agreement, an interim unity government was to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections. | |
But Hamas strongly opposed Mr Abbas's initial choice of Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. | But Hamas strongly opposed Mr Abbas's initial choice of Salam Fayyad, the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. |
Correspondents say it may now be too late to organise May elections. |