Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would take key decisions over the Hamas-led cabinet's future. "We will take key decisions concerning setting up a government that is committed to Arab and international law in order to lift the siege imposed on our people and to ease their suffering," Abbas told Christian and Muslim religious leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abbas said earlier this week he had to make a decision soon on the fate of the Hamas government and that he might seek approval for any move in a referendum.
According to Reuters, Abbas said on Thursday he would make decisions "in order to focus attention on our fateful issues and ending Israeli occupation measures to reach peace that guarantees the establishment of an independent state that lives next to Israel."
On his part, Hamas leader and Interior Minister Saeed Siyam said in response Hamas movement would consider as a "coup" any referendum called by Abbas.
Foreign affairs minister, Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, has also declared his opposition to the formation of a PA government of technocrats preferring a national unity government.
Dr. Zahhar charged that the idea of a government of technocrats aimed at granting anew Abbas and the PLO the chance to act alone on the issue of negotiations with Israel.
The minister, in a press statement, further described the formation of such a government as an "unsuccessful solution" to the current crisis due to its lack of any parliamentary or popular support and would thus lead the Palestinian arena to chaos.
He recalled that the 9th PA government was one of technocrats but failed to carry out its duties.
