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"Nasser Yussef will do his mission (as interior minister) as long as he is sworn in," said Abu Rudeina
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GAZA
CITY, October 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat and Premier Ahmed Qorei have managed to resolve
their differences late Saturday, October 11, with Qorei agreeing to head
a one-month emergency government without an interior minister.
"The
prime minister and his cabinet who were sworn in by Arafat, will
continue their mission until the end of the month according to
Palestinian law ... following agreement between Arafat and Abu Ala
(Qorei)," Arafat’s media advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
The
powers of the emergency cabinet would be "effective
immediately", he added.
"The
government will continue as an emergency government with those cabinet
members who were sworn in," earlier this week, a senior Palestinian
political source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of
anonymity.
Arafat
and Qorei have been openly
locked since Thursday, October 9, in a dispute over the nature
of the new Palestinian cabinet, the delegation of powers within it and
over the role of interior minister-designate Nasser Yussef, who refused
to be sworn in by Arafat with other cabinet members at a ceremony on
Tuesday.
Abu
Rudenia said "Nasser Yussef will do his mission (as interior
minister) as long as he is sworn in."
But
the Palestinian source indicated that Yussef was unlikely to join the
government.
"The
interior ministry will be given to the prime minister until he forms a
larger government or finds someone to fill it," he said.
Arafat
has been pushing for a small, emergency cabinet governing by decrees,
but Qorei favors a normal cabinet endorsed by the Palestinian
Legislative Council.
Some
lawmakers have argued that while Arafat has the right to declare
emergency rule, the Palestinian constitution does not grant him power to
appoint an emergency government.
A
parliamentary session scheduled for Thursday at which Qorei was due to
unveil his government's program, was postponed indefinitely.
