The radical Islamist group Hamas was to submit its Cabinet list to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday after failing to persuade moderate parties to join its first government.
Prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya was to present the list of names, which includes a number of noted hardliners, for the approval of Abbas at talks in Gaza City later in the evening.
"I will today invite Brother Haniya to present the government that he has been compiling," Abbas told reporters.
"Once we have seen that list, we will then follow the regular legal procedures and then go to the PLC [parliament]," he said.
"I don't know who is in the government or their program. Until I hear that, I have nothing further to add," he said.
While Abbas has little choice but to give his approval to the nominations of Hamas, sources close to Abbas predicted he may stall on giving his rubber stamp until Israel goes to the polls on March 28.
Israeli officials urged Abbas to reject Hamas' list unless the movement behind dozens of suicide attacks renounced violence and recognized the Jewish state and past international pacts.
Haniya was formally asked by Abbas to form a government nearly four weeks ago in the wake of the Islamists' stunning victory over the formerly dominant Fatah faction in the Jan. 25 parliamentary election.
He has since tried to persuade the likes of Fatah and smaller parties to sign up to a broad-based national coalition but his efforts have been in vain.
Fatah refused to join a government that would not respect the international agreements it brokered with Israel, with many of its leaders happy to sit back and watch how Hamas deals with a host of problems including a burgeoning financial crisis.
Other secular parties such as Independent Palestine and the Third Way also declined.
The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is still mulling whether to join and is consulting its exiled leadership.
Hamas sources said the group's hardline parliamentary leader Mahmud al-Zahar had been nominated as foreign minister, while Omar Abdul Razeq, who has only just been released from Israeli custody, would take the finance portfolio.
also see story:
Hamas focused on internals, not externals
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique