Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is appointing a new interim government for the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, but Hamas is to be kept out. The jihadist terrorist group warns that such a move will be a death blow to Fatah-Hamas reconciliation efforts.

The jihadist Hamas terrorist faction currently runs the Gaza region of the Palestinian Authority after taking over in a bloody coup in 2007. Their rival for leadership of the PA, Fatah, currently controls the rest of the PA areas, within Israel's Judea and Samaria regions. In PA legislative elections held in 2006, Hamas trounced Fatah; however, Abbas remained in office as PA Chairman through this year. Hamas says Abbas must relinquish power, as his term formally ended on January 9.

In the new PA government Abbas is creating, he will likely reinstate Salam Fayyad as the PA Prime Minister and appoint two dozen officials from factions agreeable to Fatah control. These will include representatives of other factions that make up the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist group. At least two PLO constituent factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian People's Party (PPP), refused to join the planned coalition unless it embraces Hamas and other non-PLO factions as well.

Khaled Mashaal, the Damascus-based chief political leader of Hamas, said that the unilateral appointment of a PA government by Abbas is illegitimate. According to Hamas, the new cabinet would have to obtain approval from the PA legislature, which Hamas currently dominates.

Speaking to a gathering of PA factions in Syria on Saturday, Mashaal warned that Abbas is essentially putting an end to months of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation talks held in Cairo and brokered by Egyptian officials. He charged

A new government without Hamas was to appease the Americans.

that the only reason Abbas was taking the step of setting up a new government without Hamas was to appease the Americans. According to Mashaal, the U.S. doesn't want to see a unified PA government that includes the Islamist Hamas and its allies.

Fatah says that the new appointments should not be seen as closing any doors in talks with Hamas. The new government is defined as a "caretaker" measure, Fatah members explained, and it will step down as soon as an agreement on a unity government is reached among all PA factions.

Yet, in what may have been a pressure tactic before Abbas's announcement, Hamas sources reported Sunday that Fatah has been busy arresting fourteen of its supporters in various towns in Judea and Samaria. The detainees included religious leaders and teachers, Hamas said.

It is not yet known if the next round of Hamas-Fatah talks will go forward. They are currently slated for May 16 in Cairo.