Hamas: No Palestinian reconciliation if Fayyad remains PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Associated Press - July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

A senior Hamas official said a planned reconciliation with Fatah will be deeply threatened if the rival Palestinian movement insists Western-backed economist Salam Fayyad stays on as prime minister. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah thinks keeping Fayyad as prime minister is key to maintaining the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid. Hamas sees Fayyad as too close to the West. Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted Wednesday by the Palestinian daily Felesteen as saying Abbas' position is "unacceptable and unreasonable."

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Fatah 'tiptoeing round accord with Hamas' in run-up to statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

After signing a reconciliation accord two months ago but agreeing on little since, the widely hailed rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah now resembles little more than a shaky truce. The festering differences between the two Palestinian political factions have been manifested publicly in bickering over whether to appoint Salaam Fayyad as prime minister in the yet-to-be-formed interim government of technocrats.

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Hamas' Zahar says Fatah to blame for talks delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 28, 2011 - 12:00am

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar has reportedly blamed Fatah for the delay in reconciliation talks, confirming reports that talks reached a dead end. "After we signed the agreement, Fatah on the ground worked against it," Al-Zahar told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustur on Tuesday. He added that Fatah were linking the whole reconciliation process to the position of prime minster, an approach which was damaging unity efforts.

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Sha'ath: PA optimistic about UN statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 28, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership is to step up efforts to consolidate a UN statehood bid this September, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath told local media in Ramallah on Tuesday. Sha'ath, who is also commissioner for external relations in the Fatah movement, said that the Palestinian Authority has decided to set up a committee to manage all matters related to preparations for the September UN bid.

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Fayyad nomination is final, Fatah says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Nasouh Nazzal - June 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Ramallah: The Fatah party Sunday said the nomination of Dr Salam Fayyad to lead the Palestinian unity government is final. It said if Hamas did not agree with the nomination in the next couple of days, the current caretaker government under Fayyad will remain in place. "If agreement on the nomination of Dr Fayyad is not reached within the coming couple of days, it is highly possible that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas assigns Dr Fayyad to reshuffle his cabinet and preserve the status quo," Ameen Maqboul, who heads the Revolutionary Council at Fatah, told Gulf News in an interview.

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Salam Fayyad 'will refuse PM post'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Salam Fayyad will announce his intention to refuse to head the new unity government if he is offered the post, sources close to the appointed West Bank Prime Minister told Ma'an. Fayyad has publicly said he would accept whatever parties decide in Cairo. Fatah's central committee nominated Fayyad as the party's choice for the position, a party official said following a meeting of the Fatah leadership in Ramallah on June 11. Hamas swiftly rejected the proposal.

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Fatah, Hamas meet in Cairo to settle dispute on leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Representatives of Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinian rivals, are to meet Tuesday in Cairo to discuss forming a unity government among increasing differences on the candidate of the prime minister. The meeting is the second one since the two movements signed an Egyptian-brokered agreement to end political division between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. When the two movements met on May 14, they discussed the independent candidates who may lead the technocratic government that will administer Gaza and the West Bank according to the agreement.

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Palestinian Unity Effort Shows Cracks as Factions Disagree Over Choosing Leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah and Hamas so far disagree on who should lead a unity government, a possible sign of discord before talks scheduled to start in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting Palestinian officials and analysts to question the durability of the recent reconciliation agreement. The Egyptian-brokered pact was reached unexpectedly and signed formally at a ceremony in Cairo on May 4. It was meant to end four years of schism between the mainstream Fatah, the dominant party in the West Bank, and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the subsequent division between the two territories.

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Hamas, Fatah leaders detained in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli forces detained two members of the Palestinian Legislative Council from the Hamas and Fatah blocs overnight on Wednesday, following raids on their homes in Nablus and Tulkarem, official sources told Ma'an. Fatah lawmaker Hussam Khader, a long-time proponent of reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, was taken from his home at 2 a.m., officials said. Witnesses said 50 Israeli military jeeps had arrived in the Balata refugee camp, surrounded the home and searched its contents before taking Khader to an unknown location.

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Hamas strongman accuses Abbas of breaching reconciliation pact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - June 2, 2011 - 12:00am

A high-ranking Islamic Hamas movement official on Wednesday accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of breaching the reconciliation agreement, which was signed in Cairo and sponsored by Egypt on May 4 between the movement and Fatah party. Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas strongman in Gaza, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that President Abbas has made a mistake " when he tried to make the new government, which should be formed after signing the agreement, as his own government, instead of a government of national accordance."

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