BICOM

The London based Al Hayat newspaper reports that Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas told senior officials in his party that he will propose to Hamas the holding of a general Palestinian election in May. Abbas plans to propose the idea when he meets Hamas political bureau head Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday in Cairo (The Jerusalem Post reports the meeting will take place in the second half of this month). The Fatah leader told his senior officials to mobilise the supporters and to start preparing for elections. Abbas, on several occasions, said that he has no intention to run for office and seek re-election. Currently, there is no certain candidate or replacement for the leadership position in Fatah.

In earlier Fatah-Hamas reconciliation talks, an election date was not agreed upon. Fatah preferred an early as possible date, while Hamas wanted to postpone it until the summer, fearing it would be forced to give up control over the Gaza Strip. The election was due to be held in January 2009, with a vote for the Parliament planned for January 2010. However, the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas prevented an agreed upon election date.

The two factions also could not agree on the formation of interim government. Abbas wanted to retain caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as the head of the technocratic government, as the Palestinian president feared that failure to appoint Fayyad would prompt the US and EU to suspend financial aid to the Palestinians. Hamas, however, rejected his nomination since it considers Fayyad part of the Palestinian split, and nominated its Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Jamal Al-Khodari, head of the Popular Committee to Confront the Israeli Siege, for the post.

Meanwhile yesterday in a separate development, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released $200 million (£125 million) in security funding aid to the Palestinians after the Obama Administration supported the releasing of the aid in the interests of Israel and the US. Meanwhile, an additional $200 million in economic assistance is still being withheld. These funds were frozen in August as a response to the Palestinian Authority’s strategy of unilaterally seeking statehood at the United Nations. The US also recently halted $60 million (£37million) in aid to UNESCO following its inclusion of the Palestinians as a member.