March 11, 2010  Print Email | Israel's Netanyahu needs more time to form govt
He was tasked on 20 February to form a coalition government
Posted by Agencies at 07:18 AM GMT on Mar 20, 2009 | JERUSALEM (AFP): Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will today make a formal request seeking more time to form a coalition government, the president's office said.
The hawkish Likud leader wants to use the extra time, another two weeks, to try to convince the left-of-centre Labour party of outgoing Defence Minister Ehud Barak to join his government.
 Netanyahu had been expected earlier to ask for the extension on Sunday, but the office of President Shimon Peres said the request would be presented on Friday.
Netanyahu was tasked on February 20 with forming a government after February 10 snap elections. He had an initial 28-day deadline but is legally entitled to a two-week extension.
He had hoped to form a broad-based government coalition to include the centrist Kadima party and Labour, the dominant parties in the current government.
Kadima leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, turned down Netanyahu's advances because of the weight far-right and religious parties would have in his coalition. But despite deep differences, the two have continued to hold talks and are due for another round on Sunday, according to Likud officials.
Barak on Wednesday urged his Labour party to consider joining the next government, in a sharp reversal of his earlier position.
He returned to the theme in a series of radio and television interviews on Thursday, asserting that in the "superior interests of the state" he would try to persuade Labour to join a Netanyahu government "to counteract the effect of the extreme right."
According to Israeli news reports, Netanyahu has offered Barak the chance to stay on as defence minister.
Barak declared earlier this month that he would not join a Netanyahu-led government after the Likud leader reached a deal with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, under which its controversial leader Avigdor Lieberman would become foreign minister.
Netanyahu wants to form as broad as possible a government to avoid a repetition of the scenario in 1996, when his right-wing government collapsed because far-right parties quit over deals he struck with the Palestinians under US pressure.
Although Kadima won 28 seats in the February 10 election -- one more than Netanyahu's Likud -- the former premier was tasked with forming the next government because he is believed to have a better chance of forging a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
|
|
| |
|