RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 20 (UPI) -- A dispute over the Palestinian unity government's new prime minister led to an indefinite postponement of a Fatah-Hamas summit, a Fatah official said.
A planned Tuesday meeting to advance plans to form a single West Bank and Gaza government led by a single prime minister will be rescheduled because both sides disagreed on who that prime minister should be, Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the Fatah team negotiating the reconciliation deal, told reporters in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the Palestinian National Authority's administrative capital.
A Hamas spokesman would not say why Fatah asked to postpone the meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the Fatah ticket and Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Hamas opposes extending the tenure of disputed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the centrist Third Way Party, the Journal and other news organizations reported.
Fatah, meanwhile, rejected Hamas' counteroffers, whose names have not been made public.
Fatah insists on the U.S.-educated Fayyad, arguing Palestinians need an internationally respected figure to overhaul the Palestinian government. Hamas describes Fayyad as "a tool in the hands of America and Israel" responsible, among other things, for a crackdown against West Bank Islamists.
Ismail Haniyeh, the other disputed Palestinian prime minister, said delaying the meeting reflected the serious resolve of both parties to achieve a national unity government, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The summit delay is seen as a setback to last month's unity deal, when Hamas and Fatah pledged to end a four-year rift that has left Palestinians with rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza.
The four-year division is sometimes called "Wakseh" by Palestinians, meaning humiliation, ruin and collapse as a result of self-inflicted damage.
Both sides say they consider reconciliation essential for Palestinians to fulfill their goal of establishing an independent state in the two areas, which lie on opposite sides of Israel.
Fatah favors peace with Israel, while Hamas rejects international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
