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Hamas unveils Cabinet

Peter Beaumont

Abbas unlikely to grant approval until after Israeli polls

Ramallah: The militant Palestinian organisation Hamas on Saturday unveiled its new Government, setting Palestinian society on an inevitable collision course with Israel and the international community.

The announcement comes after weeks of negotiations following Hamas' election victory in January and after the group had apparently failed to persuade any more moderate parties to join a coalition.

Loyalists in the Islamist group will now control the key Finance, Security and Foreign Affairs Ministries, triggering threats by the U.S. and Israel, supported by the U.K. and E.U., that they would financially isolate the new Government unless it rejected violence.

Foretaste of problems

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose leader Ahmed Sadaat was dramatically seized from a Jericho prison last week by Israeli forces, will vote this weekend on whether to join Hamas, in a move unlikely to soften the new Government's image.

The declaration of the list of Hamas Cabinet members must now be approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas along with its Government programme. In a foretaste of problems ahead, Israel is withholding customs dues and taxes collected under the Paris Protocol on behalf of the Palestinian Authority following the election

Mr. Abbas is expected to put off the approval of a new Government until after Israel's March 28 election, but his confidants say he is not yet ready to force a full-blown confrontation with the Islamist militants. Mahmoud Zahar, the movement's leader in Gaza, has been named Foreign Minister, while Said Siyam, a popular Hamas lawmaker, will head the Interior and Civil Affairs Ministries. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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