The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday rejected a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee's decision not to verify the line-up of the Hamas-led cabinet.

Hamas politburo member Adnan Asfour told reporters that constitutionally, the PLO executive committee doesn't have the right to accept or reject the platform of the new cabinet.

The new cabinet's platform can only get the confidence from the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and tomorrow the cabinet and its political platform would be brought to the parliament to get confidence, said Asfour.

Atef Edwan, a Hamas member of the PLC, also said before the meeting of the PLO executive committee that no Palestinian constitution gives the executive committee competence to agree or not agree on the new cabinet.

Edwan told reporters that the PLC is the side that has this competence, referring that the previous cabinets were not presented to the PLO executive committee to get verification or approval.

He added that he believes that pressures had been practices on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to present the cabinet to the PLO executive and we understood that it's a message for Hamas.

Well-informed Palestinian sources earlier said that the PLO executive committee rejected on Wednesday the line-up of Hamas-led cabinet.

The sources said that the PLO executive committee made the decision after it held a meeting, headed by president and PLO chairman Abbas, in Ramallah on whether to verify the Hamas-led cabinet or reject it.

According to the sources, the PLO rejects the Hamas cabinet's political platform because it contradicts with the platform of the PLO, which is based on the Declaration of Independence made in Algeria in November 1988 calling for a peace solution to the Palestine issue and an implementation of UN Security Council's concerned resolutions.

Hamas has also rejected to include in its cabinet platform a clear text about the PLO mentioning that the PLO is the Palestinians' sole and legitimate representative, which has made all other Palestinian parties and factions in the parliament rejected to join the Hamas-led cabinet.

Tayseer Khaled, member of the PLO executive committee, said at the end of the meeting that the committee rejected the Hamas- cabinet political platform.

Khaled told reporters that the committee submitted two letters, one is to President Abbas and the other to Prime Minster-designate Ismaeel Haneya, informed them that the Hamas-led cabinet was rejected.

He clarified that the PLO decision is obligatory to Abbas that it's not accepted for forming a Palestinian cabinet that doesn't recognize the PLO as the sole and the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Khaled demanded the Hamas to act from now on as a government and not as a political organization as well as to recognize the PLO as the Palestinians' representative.

Asking whether the PLO executive committee has competence to reject Hamas cabinet, Khaled said "we have the competence, once we rejected take-care cabinet that former premier Ahmed Qurei attempted to form during the phase of late Yasser Arafat."

On Sunday, Ismail Haneya presented his cabinet's political platform and the list of the ministers to Abbas who said the line- up would be presented to the PLO executive committee within 48 hours.

Hamas, which secured 74 seats in the 132-member PLC, decided to form a 24-member cabinet after its efforts to bring forward a national unity government failed four weeks after Haneya was designated by President Abbas to form the next cabinet on Feb.21.

Source: Xinhua