The executive committee of the Fatah-dominated PLO has called on Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to resign. President Mahmoud Abbas, who belongs to Fatah and heads the PLO, has recently given up months of efforts to form a Hamas-Fatah unity government, saying this week the talks had reached a dead end.
Efforts to form a replacement government are under way, the main options being for Abbas to dismiss the Hamas-led government and form another, or to call a national referendum on whether new elections should be held. "The executive committee will discuss all the options and will take a final decision in three or four days," when Abbas returns from a trip to Gaza, PLO committee member Samir Ghosheh said.
The PLO wants Haniyeh to quit before decisions are taken on the next step. It cannot force him to resign, but its call is likely to put further pressure on him to step aside as efforts are made to replace his administration. Haniyeh left Gaza this week on a foreign tour and is not expected to return to the Palestinian territories for at least a month, possibly only in January.
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