BICOM

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday swore in the new Palestinian unity government. However, questions remain over coordination between Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas, which backs the new government.

At the end of April, the two factions announced that they had agreed to form a unity government to prepare for elections. The move precipitated an end to peace talks between Israel and the PA, with Hamas committed to Israel’s destruction. Yesterday, at a ceremony in Ramallah, Abbas announced a 17-person government in which all ministers are without explicit affiliation to Hamas, a move designed to circumvent the problem that Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation both by the US and the EU.

The swearing in followed last minute wrangling over the makeup of the cabinet. Current PA Prime Minister Ramdi Hamdallah will remain in his post, and will also take the role of Interior Minister. Riyad al-Maliki will be the Foreign Minister despite Hamas objections, and Finance Minister Shukri Bishara will also remain in his post.

Although yesterday’s swearing-in cleared one significant hurdle in the broader Palestinian reconciliation process, it still left many questions unanswered. Hamas has reportedly demanded that 40,000 Gazan civil servants be added to the PA wage bill. This would create a dilemma for international donors such as the UK and US who currently help fund the PA. Perhaps the most significant question surrounds security cooperation. Hamas and Fatah currently run separate and exclusive security regimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank respectively, and it remains unclear how these will be reconciled, especially as PA forces in the West Bank coordinate with the IDF.

Hamas’s former-Prime Minister in the Gaza Strip Ismael Haniyeh yesterday indicated that it would remain in full control of its forces. He said the unity agreement meant that Hamas’s armed wing “became an army today.” He pledged that Hamas, regardless of agreements with Fatah, will pursue “resistance by all forms.”