Palestinian president and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, will meet in Gaza on Sunday, after Abbas had wrapped up a seven-country European tour to garner support for the Palestinian coalition government.
Sources at the Abbas’s office said the expected meeting will deal with the pending resignation of interior minister, Hani Alqawasmi.
Qawasmi’s resignation was reportedly attributed to lack of cooperation among the security officials with respect to enforcing law and order.
The meeting between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas, will be attended by representatives of the various security bodies.
Chief Palestinian negotiator, Sa’eb Eriqat, said that the Palestinian president’s priorities were ‘the success of the national unity government, lifting the siege and enforcing law”.
Eriqat denied reports that Abbas was thinking over resigning in two months if the internationally-imposed economic embargo on the coalition Palestinian government remains in place.
Media reports said that Abbas is currently thinking to resign or call for early elections if the boycott continues and that he is frustrated over such underway situation, following his European tour.
Prime Minister Haniya of Hamas, ruled out last Thursday the possibility to form another coalition, asserting that the option is ‘dissolving the current coalition’. Haniya had earlier warned of new developments within the next three months unless the siege is lifted.
Meanwhile, chief of the Fatah-linked preventive security, Yousef Essa, sent out a sharply-worded message to PM Haniya, protesting at what he called accusations by Hamas leaders to his apparatus of initiating chaos and undermining internal security, Ma’an News Agency reported.
Abbas-Haniya meeting comes amidst a state of internal instability across the coastal Gaza Strip and continued international boycott, priorities that top the agenda of the Hamas-Fatah coalition government’s agenda.
