| Hamas picks pragmatist as prime minister Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060220/2006-02-20T193747Z_01_L20470542_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-HAMAS-GOVERNMENT-DC.htmlhttp://reuters.myway.com/article/20060220/2006-02-20T193747Z_01_L20470542_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-HAMAS-GOVERNMENT-DC.html
Abbas to ask Hamas's Haniyeh to form government Feb 20, 2:37 PM (ET)
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will formally ask Hamas's prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, on Tuesday to form a government, leaders of the Islamic group said on Monday after meeting Abbas.
Haniyeh will have up to five weeks to put together an administration, which Abbas has said should recognize past peace deals with Israel and commit itself to pursuing statehood through negotiations.
"The official request will be made tomorrow in the evening in a direct meeting with (Abbas), when we will receive the official accreditation to form the next government," Haniyeh, one of the Hamas men who held talks with Abbas on Monday, told reporters.
Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction, crushed Abbas's Fatah faction in the January 25 parliamentary election on a platform of rooting out corruption in the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas rejected Abbas's call, at the opening session of parliament on Saturday, for a new government to pursue a peace agenda. But neither the group nor the president appeared ready for an immediate showdown.
Haniyeh, a 43-year-old Gazan, is seen by many Palestinians as a pragmatist who has forged good relations with rival factions.
Hamas said earlier it expected to form a government within two weeks and hoped to put together as wide a coalition as possible.
But the militant Islamic Jihad group turned down Hamas's invitation to join up, saying it feared the administration's policy would be constrained by past peace deals with Israel.
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