Palestinian prime minister offers to resign just two weeks after being sworn in

Two weeks after being sworn in as Palestinian prime minister, Rami Hamdallah has offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to Palestinian media reports, the dramatic resignation came because Mr Hamdallah believed his deputies had “overstepped their authority”.

Mr Abbas had appointed two close confidants as deputy prime ministers – one for political and one for economic affairs – due to Mr Hamdallah’s relative political inexperience.

Mr Hamdallah has no political experience and is not known to be affiliated with any political faction. However, his cabinet was dominated by members of the Fatah party headed by Mr Abbas and commentators speculated how much flexibility the new prime minister would have.

A senior Palestinian source said a visibly angry Mr Hamdallah left his office in his private car rather than in the government-owned vehicle provided for him.

It was not immediately clear if Mr Abbas would accept the resignation. He rejected numerous resignations tendered by Mr Hamdallah’s predecessor, Salam Fayyad.

Mr Hamdallah (55), a British-educated academic, had served for many years as president of al-Najah university in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, when he was chosen by Mr Abbas to take over from Mr Fayyad on June 6th.

Hamas leaders had condemned Mr Hamdallah's appointment, describing his government as illegal. Hamas said the appointment was in breach of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement reached in Cairo which aimed at establishing a Palestinian unity government.

The surprise resignation comes ahead of next week's visit to the region of US secretary of state John Kerry, who is trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, during talks in Jerusalem yesterday with visiting European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, urged Europe to back the resumption of direct bilateral talks without preconditions. Ms Ashton said Europe supported Mr Kerry's efforts and she also expressed understanding of Israeli security concerns.

The Palestinians have linked a resumption of talks to an Israeli settlement freeze and an Israeli commitment that the 1967 West Bank border will be the basis for territorial discussions.

Mr Netanyahu also criticised the refusal of some EU states, including Ireland, to classify Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation.

“If Hizbullah isn’t a terrorist organisation, I don’t know what is a terrorist organisation. I mean, they’re butchering people left and right across the world and now in the cities of Syria.”