Hamas Rejects Joining PNA Cabinet

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 03, 2002

Hamas Rejects Joining PNA Cabinet

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The Islamic resistance movement Hamas on Sunday rejected an offer from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to join the new Palestinian cabinet that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is intending to reshuffle.

Isma'eel Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas movement leader in Gaza, told Xinhua after an internal Hamas leadership debate on the PNA offer that the movement had finally decided not to join the new government of the PNA.

Some media reports quoted official Palestinian sources as saying that Arafat had decided to nominate two Hamas leaders to be members in the new cabinet in the coming days.

Abu Shanab denied the reports, saying the movement had issued its final decision not to participate in the new government.

"The movement is studying now to present a draft to the PNA that calls for complete, comprehensive reforms into the Palestinian community that takes into consideration the needs of the Palestinians people in the present and the future," Abu Shanab said.

Earlier on Sunday, Abdullah El Shami, an Islamic Jihad senior leader in Gaza, said his organization had also rejected the PNA offer that called upon his group to join the new cabinet.

According to PNA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PNA had invited all Palestinian political groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) opposition groups.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also announced a few days ago that they had rejected the offer.

Abed Rabbo said Arafat was intending to reshuffle the cabinet within the coming days, adding that the number of ministers in the new cabinet would not exceed 20, compared with the current one that consists of more than 30 people.

Reshuffling the cabinet, mixing Palestinian security apparatuses and holding municipal and parliamentary elections by the end of this year are part of the reforms Arafat is intending to carry out soon.

The reforms are a result of the pressure from the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as from Israel, Europe and the United States, who said that reforming the PNA could help end the ongoing violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

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