Less than a week after the signing of the Mecca "national unity" agreement, a new crisis is looming between Fatah and Hamas over the formation of a coalition government. Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the movement was strongly opposed to the expected appointment of Fatah legislator Muhammad Dahlan as deputy prime minister. The Mecca agreement calls for the appointment of a Fatah representative as Haniyeh's No. 2, and Fatah officials have put forward Dahlan as their candidate. | "Over our dead bodies," said a senior Hamas official... |
Sources close to Dahlan denied, however, that he was interested in the job. "No one has approached Dahlan on this issue and we don't believe he wants to serve in the new unity government," one source said.
The Hamas official also said his movement was opposed to the appointment of another top Fatah official, Azzam al-Ahmed, as deputy prime minister. Like Dahlan, Ahmed has been accused of involvement in an alleged scheme to bring down the Hamas-led government. Two other Fatah officials, Muhammad Shtayeh and Naser Yussef, have also been mentioned as possible candidates for the post.
Fatah spokesman Abdel Hakim Awad said Hamas had no right to veto Fatah's candidate. "The appointment of a deputy prime minister is an internal Fatah affair," he said. "Hamas has no right to meddle in our affairs, whether the candidate is Dahlan or someone else."