Ramallah:A new Palestinian Authority government was sworn in on Saturday in presence of President Mahmoud Abbas. During the ceremony, President Mahmoud Abbas chose Mohammad Shtayyeh as the Prime Minister of West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
An economist and longtime advisor of Abbas, Mohammad Shtayyeh, along with his cabinet members, took the oath in Ramallah at Abbas' headquarters.
Along with the new responsibility, Shtayyeh will face various challenges related to the Palestinian Authority. The PA is in a deep financial crisis following US sanctions and Israel's withholding of $138 million in key tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
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The new government headed by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh had replaced the technocratic government formed by Rami Hamdallah in 2014.
Palestinian Prez swears in new govt, Mohd Shtayyeh appointed as PM Abbas' decision of appointing Mohammad Shtayyeh as the prime minister and allowing him to lead the next government reveals his dissatisfaction over the anti-Palestanian unity deal.
As peace talks with Israel ran aground years ago and the Trump administration will likely put forward a peace plan that the Palestinians say favours Israel, Abbas badly needed to garner power at home and extend his control back to Gaza, which Hamas governs separately.
But Hamas accused Abbas of acting unilaterally, saying in a statement Saturday that swearing in a "separatist" government "boosts the division between Gaza and the West Bank as a practical step to implement the 'deal of the century,'" the name the Palestinians use to refer to the undisclosed U.S. peace plan.
In a meeting with the new cabinet, Abbas, called on them to continue "to fight the (Israeli) occupation with all legal means," referring to U.N. organizations, as well as through "peaceful popular resistance."
He said Israel should bear the "consequences" if it did not withdraw from territories it occupied since the 1967 Middle-East war.
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