Abbas swears in Palestinian unity government

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in a unity government in a reconciliation deal with Hamas Islamists.

The US has pledged to work with the new administration while Israel has shunned it, potentially setting the two on a collision course.

Mr Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank depends on foreign aid, appeared to have banked on Western acceptance of a 16-member cabinet of what he described as politically unaffiliated technocrats.

Setting a policy in line with US and European Union demands, the Western-backed leader said his administration would continue to honour agreements and principles at the foundation of a peace process with Israel.

Hamas, which advocates Israel’s destruction, has run the Gaza Strip since seizing the territory from Abbas’s Fatah forces in a brief civil war in 2007.

Numerous reconciliation efforts, largely brokered by Egypt, have failed over power-sharing.

“Today, and after announcing the government of national unity, we declare the end of division that caused catastrophic harm to our cause,” Mr Abbas said, voicing sentiments widely shared by Palestinians, as ministers took the oath of office in a ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel predictably shunned the deal. It barred three Gaza-based ministers from travelling to the West Bank to be sworn in and reaffirmed a decision to freeze US-brokered peace talks made in April, when initial steps toward Palestinian unity were taken.

The US state department, however, said it would work with the new government and cautiously pledged to continue to disburse aid to the Palestinians while monitoring its policies, drawing Israeli anger.

“It appears that president Abbas has formed an interim technocratic government that does not include ministers affiliated with Hamas,” state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington. “But we will continue to evaluate the composition and policies of the new government and calibrate our approach accordingly.”

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, released a statement after Ms Psaki’s comments, denouncing the unity cabinet as supported by Hamas, a group bent on Israel’s destruction.

“We are deeply disappointed,” the statement said. It accused the United States of “enabling Abbas to believe that it is acceptable to form a government with a terrorist organisation.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet met in emergency session after the deal and threatened to hold Mr Abbas accountable for any attacks against Israel, alluding to sporadic rocket fire from Gaza to which Israel has thus far responded by bombing militant strongholds in the coastal territory.

“The agreement with Hamas makes Abbas directly responsible for any terrorist activity from Gaza,” said a statement summing up the Israeli ministers’ meeting.

Reuters