The prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Salam Fayyad, has submitted his resignation to President Mahmud Abbas, stating that it will take effect when the national consensus government is formed at the end of the month.

Prime Minister Fayyad was appointed in June 2007 after the Hamas takeover of the Gaza strip. His appointment followed the dismissal of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas by President Abbas. Hamas consider the appointment of Prime Minister Fayyad to be illegitimate, not least because his appointment has never been ratified by the legislature and the Basic Law requires, and consider Prime Minister Haniyeh still to be the legitimate prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

In the context of a proposed national unity government, the proposed resignation of Prime Minister Fayyad is clearly a conciliatory move. It is also a sign that the unity government will work within the constitutional framework of the Basic Law. How it would be able to do so with the PM issue still outstanding was very unclear at the time of the last post on the PNA.