RAMALLAH: Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and his West Bank-based government were sworn in yesterday and one of their main challenges will be reaching a power-sharing deal with the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
Hamdallah, a political independent and linguistics professor, was named on Sunday by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas to replace Salam Fayyad, who quit in April but remained in his post while a successor was sought.
“This is my government and you have all my trust and protection,” Abbas said to the new cabinet members in broadcast remarks. “This government will work hard in the time available to it, whether it be weeks, months or whatever.” Hamas has called Hamdallah’s appointment illegal and said Abbas should have focused instead on ending the internal Palestinian divide.
Leaders of Abbas’ mainstream Fatah movement and Hamas officials agreed in May to work towards forming a unity government in August. But political differences, including over how to handle the longstanding conflict with Israel, have delayed any joint administration. Hamas, which won the Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in a brief civil war in 2007 and rejects any recognition of Israel. Abbas has been party to US-brokered efforts to revive peace talks that broke down in a dispute over Jewish settlement in 2010.
Egyptian blogger
in hunger strike
CAIRO: A prominent Egyptian blogger has begun a hunger strike in protest at his detention and to raise awareness of what activists say is a widening crackdown on dissent by President Mohammed Mursi and his Islamist-led government. Ahmed Douma was sentenced this week to six months in jail for calling Mursi a criminal and a murderer in media interviews. He has been in detention since his arrest in April. After the sentencing he was meant to leave prison on bail pending an appeal, but was kept behind bars and charged again, this time with inciting violence.
Bomb kills two soldiers in Tunisia
TUNIS: A roadside bomb killed two Tunisian soldiers yesterday in the mountainous border region near Algeria where security forces have been hunting Al Qaeda linked jihadists, with the government warning of a dangerous evolution. “At around 7:45am two soldiers were killed and two others wounded when a device exploded in the Doghra area,” said spokesman Mokhtar Ben Nasr.Agencies
