Fatah: No new national consensus government

A new Palestinian government will be sworn in within two or three months but it will not be a national consensus government, a Fatah official said Wednesday. Azzam al-Ahmad, the speaker of Fatah in the Palestinian parliament, told Ma’an that caretaker Prime Minister Ramil Hamdallah would not introduce major changes to his new government. President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday asked Hamdallah to form a new government to be sworn in as a regular government. The new government, according al-Ahmad, will not be a national consensus government nor a caretaker government. “It will be a regular government due to failure to implement a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas which was due on Aug. 14.” He highlighted that Hamas “hasn’t responded positively to Fatah's requests to hold a meeting outside Cairo in order to put the reconciliation agreement into effect.” Al-Ahmad asserted that he contacted senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk before Aug. 8 to arrange for a meeting outside Cairo because of Egypt’s turmoil. He said he suggested Beirut, but Abu Marzouk responded with “incitement against the president and Fatah in a news conference they held to attack us.” He added: “Hamas is waiting to see how things will end up in Egypt.” Asked about the agreement which was due to be implemented on Aug. 14, and to bring about a national consensus government and set a date for elections, al-Ahmad said he couldn’t elaborate. “We can’t give answers now and the leadership is studying the new conditions in the region especially the ongoing earthquake in Egypt which could possibly change the Middle East.”