Senior Hamas official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, speaking to the Palestinian daily, al Falesteen, has reiterated the party position that Hamas will not support Salam Fayyed continuing in his current position as Prime Minister in an interim unity government.
In an interview with the daily al Falesteen paper Hamas official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, stated that Mahmoud Abbas preferred choice of Fayyed for the position of PM in a unity Hamas-Fatah interim government is not acceptable to Hamas.
Marzouk stated that Abbas’s demand that Fayyed continue on in the role of PM is both ‘unacceptable and unreasonable” and made clear that if Fatah were to stick to this position it would bring the parties back to a ‘pre-reconciliation era.’
Fatah and Hamas agreed to a reconciliation deal in May that would see the parties agree on an interim government in the run up to elections in 2012. However since then the parties have been unable to agree on the position of interim PM.
Fatah have insisted current PM Salam Fayyed stays on in the position as a means of securing continued international aid. Hamas has insisted on a Gazan PM accusing Fayyed of collusion with the Israeli siege on Gaza.