Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejigged his government yesterday at the end of a month-long state of emergency declared when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.
Responding to a constitutional limit on any state of emergency of 30 days that ends at midnight, Abbas swore in three new ministers and Salam Fayyad was preparing to resign and be reappointed as prime minister, presidential aides said.
That will put the government formed after Abbas dismissed its Hamas-led predecessor on June 14 on a new legal footing, though it may not address all criticisms by some lawyers who have argued that Abbas's actions needed parliamentary approval - though the legislature has been paralysed by the crisis.
The appointment of new ministers by the Western-backed President and the resignation and reappointment of the cabinet effectively creates a new government to replace the one formed under Fayyad on an emergency basis after forces loyal to Abbas's secular Fatah faction were routed by Hamas fighters in Gaza.
"Salam Fayyad will resign along with his government [yesterday] evening," Abbas media adviser Nabeel Amr said. "He will then be reappointed so there will no longer be an emergency government."
"It was agreed to distribute the heavy workload by adding ... ministers to the government. Then it can go to parliament for a vote of confidence - if there's a quorum," Agriculture and Social Affairs Minister Mahmoud Al Habbash told Reuters.
"The President is very keen that all his steps should be legal. He and the Prime Minister want to expand the current government," an Abbas aide said in Ramallah.
Leading lawyers who drafted the Palestinian Basic Law, an interim constitution, had argued that Abbas had the right to dismiss Hamas's Esmail Haniya as the prime minister, but not to appoint an entire new cabinet without legislative approval - nor the right to suspend parts of the constitution by decree.
Haniya, who still considers himself prime minister, told worshippers at a Gaza mosque yesterday that the President was failing to seek parliamentary approval. He also renewed Hamas's call for dialogue to end a schism.
Dialogue
Haniya rejected conditions Abbas has set for talks: "We want dialogue but we will not beg for dialogue."
Abbas's supporters argue that parliament - the Palestinian Legislative Council - has been paralysed by Hamas and therefore the President must manage his administration without it.
Hamas points out that more than half of its majority bloc have been arrested by Israel. The remainder failed to attend a session on Wednesday. There was no quorum to begin a new legislative year.
Lisbon (Reuters) The Quartet of Middle East mediators will meet in Lisbon on July 19 at what could be former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's first meeting as the group's envoy, a Portuguese Foreign Ministry source said yesterday.
The Quartet comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. US Secretary of State Condol-eezza Rice will be in Portugal on that day and is expected to attend.
Blair, appointed by the Quartet on June 27, might attend, according to diplomatic sources.
"I still don't know but I think yes [that Blair is coming]," the Foreign Ministry source said, adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might also attend.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he could not confirm there would be a Quartet meeting in Lisbon this week. "I have not heard that all of the final arrangements and final agreements have been made for one."
An EU official in Brussels said the meeting in Lisbon was not likely to involve Arab states like Saudi Arabia, as talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were progressing.
