Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Friday vetoed Hamas government decisions to create a new special force of armed militants headed by a wanted radical.
"President Abbas considers the decisions of interior minister Said Siam illegal and anti-constitutional, and he has sent a letter to this effect to prime minister Ismail Haniya," Tayeb Abdelrahim told reporters.
A Palestinian official told AFP that Abbas had drawn up a decree to have the decisions reversed, the text of which was approved by the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation earlier Friday.
ABBAS TO SEEK AID DURING MIDEAST, EUROPE TRIP: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left for Muslim and European nations on Friday to press for more aid to the Palestinian people and seek support for peace initiatives with Israel.
His trip comes as the Hamas-led Palestinian government faces a crisis over cuts in foreign aid and Israeli tax transfers. Hamas says its new government is unable to pay wages to 165,000 employees and has warned of economic collapse within months.
Abbas will first visit Jordan, which earlier this week scrapped a trip by Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, after saying it had found a weapons cache belonging to the Islamist militant group on its territory.
Abbas will then travel to Turkey, followed by Norway, Finland and France.
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the president would also talk to European leaders about reviving peace negotiations with Israel, frozen since a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000.
Comments
Comments are closed.