Hamas official: Shabir accepted PM post

From Ynet News, 13/11/06, by Associated Press ...

US-educated professor with ties to both Hamas, rival Fatah is leading candidate for Palestinian prime minister in emerging unity government. Hamas official says Shabir accepted post

.... Shabir did not deny he was being considered, but said he has not been officially designated. Shabir, who has a doctorate in microbiology from West Virginia University, is considered to be close to Hamas but not an active supporter. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement, said Shabir had accepted the post. Shabir was not available for comment.

Respected economist Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, is being considered for the post of finance minister, a job he held until the Hamas-led government took office early this year.

....Hamas and Fatah hope that Shabir and Fayyad will be acceptable to the international community and help persuade the West to lift economic sanctions on the Hamas-led government. Israel and Western donor nations have demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.

...Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman of the US Consulate in Jerusalem, declined to say whether Shabir - and the rest of the next Palestinian Cabinet - would be acceptable to the US. "When they're announced, we'll be looking not only at who they are but what their program platform is," She said.

...In Brussels, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner hinted at flexibility. "If a new government is formed, we need to be firm on the principles, but we must be flexible about the form in which the commitments are expressed," Ferrero-Waldner said. "I very much hope that we still can see a government which takes positions which allow us to re-engage."

The leading candidate for the third key post, foreign minister, is Ziad Abu Amr, an independent lawmaker with ties to both factions, officials close to the talks said. Abu Amr has mediated between Hamas and Fatah in the past. The post is currently being held by a Hamas hard-liner, Mahmoud Zahar.

..... Shabir rarely spoke in public about Israel , and his views on the conflict with the Jewish state are largely unknown.

.....The international boycott has made it largely impossible for Hamas to pay its 165,000 civil servants, causing widespread hardship in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

....Israel, the US and other Western countries have demanded that Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing peace deals as conditions for lifting the sanctions. Until now, Hamas has rejected the conditions, and officials involved in the unity talks said the new government would be vague on the three principles.