The Palestinian Prime Minister on Monday presented his new Cabinet to parliament for approval, after persuading legislators from the ruling Fatah Party in a stormy overnight session to support a lineup that included only four newcomers. The Cabinet, the first under new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, will likely serve for only a few months, until parliament elections in July. Ministers who want to run in that election have to resign their Cabinet posts by mid-May, and several ministers said they plan to make a bid for a seat in parliament. The most prominent new faces in the Cabinet are Nasser Yousef, a tough ex-general, as interior minister, and Nasser al-Kidwa, the former PLO representative at the United Nations, as foreign minister. Outgoing Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath is to be named deputy prime minister. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia presented the Cabinet to parliament Monday, after winning assurances from dozens of Fatah legislators that they would approve it. Qureia needs at least 43 votes in the 85-member parliament to get the Cabinet approved. Fatah controls nearly two-thirds of all seats. In his speech to legislators, Qureia promised to press ahead with administrative reform and to boost the powers of the judiciary that had been sharply reduced by the late Yasser Arafat. Qureia said the government would try to restore law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a reference to the increasing chaos during the last four years of fighting with Israel. "We stress that the government will exert every possible effort to achieve security, with our full commitment to preserve the freedom of speech and thoughts and to avoid any internal conflict or war," Qureia said. The 24-member Cabinet only included four new ministers, including Yousef and al-Kidwa.
