FEUDING Palestinian factions have agreed on an independent academic to head a new coalition government aimed at ending a crippling Western aid freeze. The name of Mohammed Shbeir, a nonentity clinical biologist and former head of the Islamic University in Gaza, was agreed after intensive talks last week between moderate president Mahmoud Abbas and Islamist prime minister Ismail Haniya, Abbas aides and officials of Haniya's Hamas party told AFP. "Hamas proposed three names all of which were acceptable to president Abbas and Hamas indicated that their favoured choice was Mohammed Shbeir,'' an Abbas aide said.
The married father-of-six was careful when asked by AFP about his nomination. "So far I have not been formally asked to take on the duties of prime minister but if I am I will be delighted to serve my people,'' he said.
Born in 1946, Mr Shbeir has a doctorate in clinical biology from the University of West Virginia. Perceived as a Hamas sympathiser although never a party member, he served as head of the Islamic University from 1993 until September 2005 when he retired to pursue his research. Mr Shbeir served as a member of the Palestinian central election commission during the January parliamentary elections that saw Hamas upset Mr Abbas's Fatah. |