Ismail Haneyya, the Palestinian premier-designate and prominent Hamas leader, on Wednesday said that he would table his new government and its program, without any changes, at the Palestinian legislative council.
Haneyya, who was retorting to the PLO executive committee's refusal of his government's program because it did not include a recognition of the PLO as the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, said that he asked PLC speaker Dr. Aziz Duweik, to allocate a special session for that purpose on Saturday 25/3/2006.
He affirmed that his government's program viewed the PLO as a national accomplishment for the Palestinian people. "For years we have asked to join the PLO, to reactivate it and to rebuild it on new democratic basis. This was coronated in the Cairo agreement in March 2005," Haneyya said, according to PIC.
For his part, Khaled Suleiman, spokesman for Hamas' parliamentary bloc, said that the PLO's refusal of the future PA government was a mere protocol step, affirming that its decisions were not binding to the PA government. Suleiman noted that the PLO, in its current status, does not include all political spectrum in the Palestinian arena, adding, "How can we recognize an organization in which we are not represented?"
Dr. Ahmed Al-Khaledi, chairman of the committee that drafted the Palestinian constitution and dean of the law college in the Najah University, said that the PA bylaw does not include an article asking the PA premier to table his government program with the PLO's executive committee.
He told PIC that the law asks the premier to table his program with the PLC to win confidence and not to any other Palestinian institution.
Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman, affirmed that his Movement recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people but only after restructuring it on new democratic and political basis as agreed upon among all factions in Cairo a year ago.
He said that the Fatah Movement, the main component of the PLO, shoulders the responsibility for the delay in restructuring the PLO.
