VIDEO - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh gave President Mahmoud Abbas an agreed list of ministers in a new unity government on Thursday after weeks of haggling in a move designed to end bloody factional violence.
Haniyeh told reporters the government list would be submitted to parliament for a confidence vote on Saturday
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"I handed the president the names of brothers, ministers of the unity government and he thankfully accepted it," Haniyeh said in a joint news conference with Abbas. "We hope that this government will launch a new dawn for the Palestinian people."
He said if the parliament approved the cabinet lineup it might be submitted to Abbas the same day so that the long-awaited government could start work.
Israel saidit would boycott the new government. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would not be able to cooperate with the new Palestinian government as it did not meet the Quartet conditions by failing to renounce terror and recognize past agreements signed with Israel.
"We hope the international community will stick to its principles and refuse to cooperate with a government saying no to peace and reconciliation," Regev added.
Washington has also made clear to the Palestinians that the embargo will not be lifted until the three conditions are met.
The cabinet deal was clinched on Wednesday when Abbas and Haniyeh settled on Hani al-Qawasmi, an academic with little security experience for the hotly-contested post of interior minister.
Qawasmi, 49, told Reuters on Thursday his priority was to end factional fighting.
"We will cooperate with all parties, especially with the brothers in Hamas and Fatah and the rest of the factions to reach an honourable and satisfactory situation," He said.
The interior minister oversees the security services, which in practice answer either to Fatah or Hamas.
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The key post of deputy prime minister will be filled by Azzam al-Ahmad of Fatah, a close adviser to Abbas and a long-time political foe of Hamas. Ahmad now heads Fatah's parliamentary bloc.
As previously announced, pro-Western economist Salam Fayyad will be finance minister and Ziad Abu Amr, a political science professor, will be foreign minister.
Meanwhile, the European Union was studying the option of funnelling funds through a pro-reform official due to head the Palestinian Finance Ministry as a first step towards restoring frozen aid, diplomats said on Thursday.
Palestinians hope the deal will end fighting between the secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, and ease a crippling Western aid embargo of the Palestinian Authority, though it is unclear whether either goal will be accomplished.
"We hope that the new government will put an end to this shameful fighting and start paying attention to our bigger goal, the liberation of our land," Said Mohammad Salah, 36, a farmer in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.