The last thing anyone following the Palestinian reconciliation talks expected was to have the PLO and Hamas negotiators disagree on who should be the foreign minister in the six-month interim period preceding elections. Most expected trouble with agreement on the Interior Ministry (solved by having Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah double up as interior minister) or the Finance Ministry (solved by keeping on current Finance Minister Shukri Bishara).
Hamas has been extremely cooperative — some would say capitulating — in the reconciliation talks, but apparently balked on granting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the trifecta of interior, finance and foreign ministries. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on his Facebook page, according to the Ma'an News Agency, that the delay in the agreement is due to the naming of the foreign minister.
