The resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad marks a failure for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, according to Tawfiq Abu Showmer, a Gaza-based political analyst.
Fayyad, educated as an economist in the United States, where he was on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank, was hand-picked by the United States to head PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s government.
His moves to end corruption in the Palestinian Authority distanced him further from Fatah, the faction headed by Abbas, who accepted the resignation against the wishes of the United States. American influence may have been severely weakened by Fayyad’s’ resignation.
The Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) both see the resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as clearing the path for reunifying the rival Hamas and Fatah factions.
Bassam Salhi, the secretary of the a leftist-socialist PPP party, called for de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to resign to make way for a new unity government,
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday accepted the resignation of Fayyad, who was handpicked by the United States to head the government several years ago. Fayyad learned economics at American universities and was considered an outside by the Fatah faction, headed by Abbas.
The Islamic Jihad also is optimistic that Fayyad’s departure will help reunite the Palestinian Authority. Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader from Gaza, wrote on his Facebook page that Abbas should from a unity government as agreed on in Cairo in 2011.