Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has submitted his resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli media quoted Shatyyeh as saying, “the next step is the need for a new arrangement that will ensure [Palestinian] unity.
“We will remain in conflict with Israel until the establishment of a Palestinian State,” he added.
Shtayyeh, a member of ruling party Fatah’s Central Committee, has been Palestinian prime minister since 2019.
Initial reports suggested he could be replaced by Mohammad Mustafa, a former deputy prime minister and economist who is also chairman of the Palestinian Investment Fund.
Shtayyeh said on Monday he was resigning to allow for the formation of a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements following Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The move comes amid growing US pressure on President Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority as international efforts have intensified to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.
A senior Hamas official said the move had to be followed by a broader agreement on governance for the Palestinians.
“The resignation of Shtayyeh’s government only makes sense if it comes within the context of national consensus on arrangements for the next phase,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Hamas involvement
“Mohammed Shtayyeh will step down from the prime minister position, and [Mahmoud] Abbas will appoint someone even more corrupt,” a Hamas source told Saudi state-owned news outlet Al Arabiya on Sunday.
According to the source, Hamas’s goal is to form an impartial and national government that is formed by consensus of the Palestinian factions, adding that the upcoming talks in Moscow to build a unity government would only be in place for “a specified period with [have] clear tasks.”
The unity talks in Moscow are scheduled to take place on Monday.
Reuters and Sam Halpern contributed to this report.
Comments are closed.