Hamas told reporters Sunday that the new Palestinian "consensus government" will be finalized over the next few days, according to Agence France Presse.
Adviser Bassem Naim, who works with Hamas' top leader Ismail Haniyeh, told AFP that major Fatah leader Azzam Al Ahmad would meet with top Hamas officials in Gaza to finalize the joint PLO-Hamas government plan this week.
"[Azzam Al Ahmad] is arriving in Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with the Hamas reconciliation delegation to hold consultations," Naim told AFP.
"We expect the government to be announced by [PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas] early the following week," he added.
Rivals Hamas and the PLO, which governs the West Bank, signed a reconciliation deal late last month, representing the latest move to overcome the two groups' years-long split. The deal calls for the formation of an "independent government" of technocrats that will be led in the interim by Abbas until elections can be held.
Hamas and PLO relations have been in tension since the former won the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament in the 2006 elections.
Mahmoud Abbas is expected to serve as the interim leader of the new unity government (File Archive/AFP)
Via SyndiGate.info
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