A Talk With Prime Minister Fayyad

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

And you left Gaza?

Yes. First I served under Abu Amar and then Abu Mazen, beginning in January 2005. And then [in] late 2005 I resigned as finance minister. I ran for elections of the PLC.

Did you get elected?

Yes, I got elected. I wanted to do something different. . . . You know what happened in the elections of 2006. . . .

Hamas?

Yes. Hamas came in and that lasted about half a year. Then I rejoined the government as finance minister in a national unity government in March 2006, which lasted three months. I found the system pretty much in ruins.

After Hamas was elected, there was an international boycott. Donors wanted to take care of the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people but did not want to do so through the government.

They wanted to extend assistance to the Palestinian people but not to go through the Ministry of Finance. As a consequence of all of this, the system became highly fragmented and there was no single address for spending. So, to answer the most basic question, how much assistance did you get last year, you really don't know. The one thing countries should be able to tell you is how much they received in donations. But a lot of money came in cash to Hamas. Iran gave money to the government. When things do not come through banks, how can you do proper accounting? So for three months we tried our best to fix things. The public finance system was totally in ruins.

Then, the government collapsed and there was the violent takeover by Hamas in June 2007.

Q. When did you become prime minister?

A. In June 2007 I was sworn in.

Do you blame the Americans for pushing the election in which Hamas won?