Palestinian president decides to change govt

Palestinian officials said President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to shake up his government.

The move is the latest sign of failure in more than a decade of attempts to reconcile with the Hamas movement.

The officials said Abbas appointed a four-member committee from his Fatah movement on Sunday to consult with political factions about forming a new government.

The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

The official Wafa News Agency said Fatah had decided to form a political government to replace the current Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's Cabinet of technocrats.

Hamdallah's government was formed in 2013 following a powersharing agreement with Hamas.

Hamdallah on Monday offered to resign, his spokesman said.

He has "put his government at the disposal of President Mahmud Abbas", the prime minister's spokesman Yussef al-Mahmud said in a statement.

In a news statement following a meeting chaired by Abbas, the central committee of Abbas' Fatah party said the new unity government should comprise political factions, members in the Palestine Liberation Organization and independent Palestinian figures to replace the current consensus government headed by Hamdallah.

The Fatah central committee also recommended the formation of a committee that includes Fatah leaders to begin dialogue and consultations with PLO factions on the formation of the new government

The Islamist movement Hamas is not part of the PLO.

Hamdallah's West Bank-based government welcomed plans for a new government, his spokesman said.

Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's forces in a 2007 near civil war, a year after winning parliamentary elections.

Since then, Abbas's governments have maintained limited self rule in the occupied West Bank, but the split between the two has remained.

In June 2014 Hamdallah formed a national unity government after a landmark reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas.

The deal has since broken down and the government has no control in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Abbas was elected in 2005 for an initial four-year term but no elections have been held since then due to the Fatah-Hamas split.

AP, Xinhua and AFP contributed to this story.

(China Daily 01/29/2019 page11)