by Saud Abu Ramadan

    RAMALLAH, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party on Wednesday rejected to name rival Hamas movement's lawmaker Aziz al-Dweik as the Hamas-dominated Parliament's speaker unless he is reelected during a new Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) term.

    Al-Dweik was PLC speaker when Israel arrested him in July 2006,after which he spent 34 months in Israeli jails and was released last month. Right after his released, al-Dweik announced that he intends to get back to his office and to his post at the parliament's building in Ramallah.

    However, pro-Fatah Secretary General of the Parliament Ibrahim Khreisha told reporters that al-Dweik can not address himself, contact anybody or call any parliamentary party to convene at the parliament's building as the speaker of the PLC.

    "Now he is just a lawmaker," he said.

    "According to the law, al-Dweik's term as the speaker of the parliament has ended two years ago. So, a new plenary session of the parliament has to convene in order to elect a new parliament board which includes a speaker and two deputies," said Khreisha.

    Hamas movement won the parliamentary elections held in January 2006, dominating the parliament with 73 seats out of 132 and ousting rival Fatah party which had dominated the parliament since the first ever parliamentary elections in 1996.

    Al-Dweik was overwhelmingly elected as the parliament's speaker, but several months later he was arrested and sent to a prison for 34 months, right after Hamas militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border attack southeast of the Gaza Strip in June 2006.

    The PLC has not held any session or a new plenary term since Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007. Before Hamas takeover of Gaza, it was also difficult to convene the PLC in both Gaza and the West Bank after Israel rounded up around 40 Hamas lawmakers.

    Al-Dweik told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he intends to open his office at the PLC building in Ramallah on Sunday to practice his post as the parliament speaker. He said he invited several political and economic Palestinian, Arab and European figures to meet at his office on Sunday.

    "I also invited lawmakers who represent all the parliamentary parties and blocks to join the reopening of the parliament's office that has been closed for three years," said al-Dweik, adding that he carried out such an action after he agreed with all the parliamentary groups represented in the PLC.

    Meanwhile, West Bank Fatah lawmaker Walid Assaf denied to reporters that the parliamentary parties had agreed that al-Dweik resumes his post as the parliament speaker on Sunday, adding "there were contacts and discussions held over the issue, but there is no agreement."

    "I will go to my office on Sunday because I want to reactivate the office of the Legislative Council to achieve the mission of reuniting the rivals who belong to the same people. I will exert all possible efforts to overcome all obstacles that might block our unity," said al-Dweik.

    Fatah lawmaker Jamal Abu el-Rub told Xinhua that "there are so many legal and political reasons that would prohibit al-Dweik from practicing his post, mainly the fact that the term of his post had expired at the end of the first plenary term two years ago.

    Abu el-Rub accused Hamas parliamentary block in the PLC for rejecting the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), to convene the PLC's General Assembly in order to start a new plenary term and elect a new speaker and two deputies.

    "Once al-Dweik clarifies his position concerning the illegal takeover of the Gaza Strip by his Hamas movement and also holding illegal PLC sessions in Gaza, then there will be an opportunity to discuss with him the possibility that he can get back to his post," said Abu el-Rub.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian politicians and analysts from Gaza voiced pessimism over reaching any reconciliation agreement between rival Fatah and Hamas movements in Cairo on August 25.

    Yahia Rabah, a political analyst from Gaza said that since the last parliamentary elections held in January 2006, the Palestinians have been passing through "political isolation, an Israeli blockade and an internal political and geographical rift between Gaza and the West Bank."

    "I believe that the blockade and the internal rift are two faces of the same coin," said Rabah, calling on Fatah and Hamas to end their feuds as soon as possible "before the Palestinians loose everything," said Rabah.