Crisis in Palestinian talks after Hamas rejects Fatah candidate

Talks between Fatah and Hamas on the formation of a Palestinian interim government to run the West Bank and Gaza were in crisis Sunday after Hamas refused to accept Fatah's candidate for prime minister. Fatah had proposed Salam Fayyad, the independent and internationally respected economist who has served as acting prime minister in the West Bank since 2007.
The crisis is the first since the two rival Palestinian groups endorsed a historic reconciliation pact in Cairo almost six weeks ago. Joint West Bank, Gaza Strip elections are due for next year.
Fatah's Central Committee Saturday formally nominated Fayyad as its candidate.
Salah al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas member and lawmaker in Gaza, said his movement would not accept the head of what he called the "current illegal government in Ramallah," not as candidate for premier, and "not even as a minister."
Fayyad's name is associated with four years of stringent blockade of the Gaza Strip and of arrests and alleged torture of senior Hamas members in the West Bank, al-Bardawil charged in a statement sent to journalists.
He also accused him of having "drowned" the West Bank in debt.
Fatah and Hamas, after Egyptian mediation, decided early last month to bury their differences and end years of bitter feuding.
The feud stems from January 2006 parliamentary elections, in which Hamas unexpected scored a landslide victory, ending decades of Fatah domination over Palestinian politics.
The rivalry culminated in the end of a short-lived unity government between the two groups and the Hamas violently seizing sole control of Gaza in June 2007.
Abbas, of Fatah, sacked Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, as a result of the Gaza take-over, and instead appointed Fayyad as premier. But Haniya refused to leave his post and continued to serve as de-facto premier in Gaza, while the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament also never ratified Fayyad's appointment.
The bloody Gaza take-over resulted in a de-facto split with the West Bank, ruled by Fayyad and Abbas.
The stand-off also prompted Abbas to postpone long-overdue new elections.
As part of the Cairo-brokered reconciliation deal, new presidential and parliamentary elections are now to take place in May 2012.
The rival parties are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Cairo to continue their discussions on the formation of the interim unity government. It was not immediately clear Sunday whether the meeting would go ahead.