Abbas must form national unity government

President Mahmoud Abbas must form a government aimed at national reconciliation after the resignation of premier Salam Fayyad, a high-ranking member of his party said on Monday. "The president must hold consultations with Palestinian movements to form a national unity government and set a date for elections," Azzam al-Ahmad, a leader of Abbas's Fatah party, told the official Voice of Palestine radio. The secular Fatah, which controls the West Bank, has been at odds for years with its bitter rival the Islamist Hamas that governs the Gaza Strip, partly over a disagreement on Fayyad as prime minister. Hamas never recognized his authority, continuing instead to recognize its own premier, Ismail Haniyeh. The Palestinian elections commission said on Friday it was "ready to carry out elections if the order is issued by the presidency," after releasing the results of what it called a successful drive to register more voters in the West Bank and Gaza. More than 1.86 million Palestinians, or 82.1 percent of the electorate, are now registered, it said. The timing of the announcement -- followed a day later by Fayyad's resignation -- was "favorable to discussions on forming a national unity government," said al-Ahmad, who is in charge of reconciliation with Hamas. "Under the law, the president has two weeks to choose a person tasked with forming a new government" which itself must take place within five weeks, he said. Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up an interim consensus government of independents that would pave the way for legislative and presidential elections within 12 months. But implementation of the deal stalled over the make-up of the interim government, and a February 2012 deal signed by Abbas and Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal in Doha intended to overcome outstanding differences was opposed by Hamas members in Gaza.