Growing Palestinian Power Struggle?

New Palestinian PM Won't Cede Authority To Abbas On Security Forces

(CBS/AP)  New Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday dismissed efforts by President Mahmoud Abbas to wrest authority from the militant Hamas Cabinet by granting his loyalists new powers over the security forces.

The dispute over the security services, along with Abbas' insistence that he remain in charge of Palestinian foreign policy, was the latest indication of a burgeoning power struggle between the moderate president and the Hamas government, which took office last week.

"There are attempts to create parallel frameworks to some ministries in the Palestinian government," Haniyeh said in an interview with The Associated Press at his Gaza City headquarters. "But I don't think (Abbas) can continue this pressure and diminish some of the authorities of this government."

Abbas, who favors restarting long-stalled peace talks with Israel, is amassing more power to bypass Hamas' new rulers, who have provoked Western threats of an aid cutoff by rejecting Israel's right to exist and refusing to renounce violence. Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, won Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.

Haniyeh said Abbas had assured him the security forces would remain under the control of the Hamas-led Cabinet, which, he said, did not take power "on the back of a tank" but in "transparent and fair elections."

But hours later, Abbas appointed a longtime ally, Rashid Abu Shbak, to head the three security services that were to be under Hamas' control, in addition to agencies already under the president's aegis.

In other developments:

Israel's president formally chose acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday to form Israel's next government, and Olmert said he'd quickly put together a coalition committed to carrying out his West Bank withdrawal plan.

Israeli border police briefly detained a Hamas Cabinet minister Thursday, the first time a member of the new Palestinian government was taken into custody since the Islamic militant group took power last week. The army said Khaled Abu Arafa, minister of Jerusalem affairs, was taken into custody because he is barred from entering the West Bank for security reasons, but he was not interrogated because his intentions were clear.

Pope Benedict XVI is considering visiting Israel in the first part of 2007, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday after meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican.

At the street level, it was clear the difficulties Hamas would have in taking control of the security forces, which are filled with loyalists from Abbas' Fatah Party.

Ahmed Abou Sayah, a member of the preventive security service, which was responsible for a 1996 crackdown on Hamas, said he would not accept a Hamas leader. "We hate them and they hate us," he said in Gaza City.

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©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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