Abbas swears in new Palestinian Authority government
Iran Press TV
Fri Jun 7, 2013 12:24AM GMT
Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in a new government headed by Rami Hamdallah, a senior academic, who is expected to lead a temporary government for several months.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.
Hamdallah replaces Salam Fayyad who resigned in April after a weeks-long row with Abbas's Fatah party over his economic policies. Fayyad formally leaves office later this month.
Most of the 24 cabinet members sworn in came from the outgoing government. Nine new members were added, including the prime minister, his two deputies and the finance minister.
The new government is expected to remain in office until mid-August, when the Fatah party and the Gaza-based Hamas movement are due to complete long-delayed negotiations to form a unity government of technocrats, and then prepare for new presidential and parliamentary elections.
Hamdallah is a British-educated professor of linguistics who has been president of al-Najah University in the occupied West Bank since 1998.
Hamas, which won the 2006 general elections but was later pushed aside by rival Fatah, said the appointment of a new prime minister without their consultation was not a legal move.
MN/MHB
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