Hamas warns Abbas against leadership changes without consultations

“This is a message to Abu Mazen and other brothers in the authority to stop issuing decrees and decisions (before consulting with us) … as if to throw them in our face,” Mashaal told a Cairo press conference. “We will not deal with them as legitimate—no one can deceive us.” Mashaal may have been responding to reports in the Palestinian press that Abbas planned to appoint his current Interior Minister Nasser Youssef as deputy commander of the Palestinian security forces. Such a move would enable Abbas to maintain control over the forces.

Hamas also was upset when Palestinian Parliament speaker Rauhi Fattouh appointed Fatah activist Ibrahim Khreisheh, as director general of the Legislative Council after last month’s parliamentary election which produced a big majority for the militant group in its first venture into elected politics.

Another top leader said earlier Wednesday that Jamal al Khudairi, an independent legislator and businessman backed by Hamas, would be named Palestinian PM.

But Mashaal claimed Hamas had not decided. “Al-Khudairi is a respected Palestinian personality,” was all Mashaal said when asked about the report.

The Hamas official who said Al Khudairi would become prime minister said the decision came during a meeting of Hamas leaders this week in Cairo.

Al Khudairi , about 50, is board chairman of Gaza’s Islamic University and owns the biggest mattress factory in the West Bank and Gaza. —AP