Gaza City - The Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament passed a resolution Monday saying the radical Islamic movement ruling Gaza will no longer recognize Mahmoud Abbas as the legitimate Palestinian president after his four-year term ends in January. If Abbas fails to call new presidential elections before his term ends on January 8, Hamas will have one of its own members replace Abbas and fulfill the post of acting president, the movement warned.
This could legally be Parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik, or - since that Hamas legislator is one of many jailed by Israel - Deputy Speaker Ahmed Bahar, the head of the parliament's legal committee, Faraj al-Ghoul said.
The resolution came amid rising tensions between Hamas and Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, who under Palestinian law must call new presidential elections at least three months before the end of his tenure. That means Wednesday.
But Abbas has indicated that he wants to hold on to power for another year, to allow the next presidential elections to take place at the same time as the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for January 2010.
The amended Palestinian election law stipulates that both elections must be held simultaneously, his aides have argued.
Abbas, they said, was chosen in presidential elections held on January 9, 2005, a year before the legislative elections in which Hamas beat Fatah, only because of the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2005.
Hamas says that according to the basic law, the presidential term for Abbas last four years and ends on January 8 and has demanded Abbas call for new presidential elections within the coming days.
Monday's resolution, passed at a parliamentary session in Gaza City in which only Hamas lawmakers were present, was also seen as an attempt to step up the pressure on Abbas in upcoming reconciliation talks scheduled to take place between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo this autumn.
Egypt is hoping to avoid a constitutional crisis, by hammering out a compromise between the two bickering parties, whose power struggle has already in the past led to bloody street clashes that have left dozens dead.
The two movements have been at loggerheads since Hamas militants routed security forces loyal to Abbas in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and took control of the salient.
Hams now administers the enclave, while Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA) has consolidated its power in the West Bank.
A senior advisor to Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, ousted from the premiership by Abbas after Hams seized control of the Gaza Strip, called Monday for the PA to be dissolved if Palestinian factions failed to reach agreement in the upcoming Egyptian-sponsored talks.
"Every party has to settle everything in Cairo," Ahmed Yousef said.
"They should come back with good news that they reached understandings achieving the national reconciliation or think deeply about breaking up the PA."
He said the situation had "became catastrophic on all levels," accusing the PA of hesitating in "announcing its failure in managing the national project," referring to peace talks between PA and Israel.
