Palestine’s President, Mahmoud Abbas, has announced that the Palestinian authority’s unity Government will resign.
At a meeting with his Fatah faction, President Abbas Sayid the cabinet has to be dissolved because the rival Hamas Movement will not allow it to operate in Gaza, which it dominates.
However, a Hamas spokesman said it rejected any unilateral dissolution.
The technocratic cabinet which comprise 17 independent ministers, was sworn in a year ago, in order to end a long-running rift between Fatah and Hamas.
The two factions had governed separately since Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007, leaving the PA governing just parts of the West Bank.
Hamas also expressed surprise at the President’s announcement as a spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, said ”Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties.
”No-one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government. Fatah acted on its own in all regards.”
