VARIOUS: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER-ELECT ARIEL SHARON MEETS WITH DEFEATED FOE EHUD BARAK TO DISCUSS FORMING A STRONG COALITION GOVERNMENT

Record ID: 400318

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER-ELECT ARIEL SHARON MEETS WITH DEFEATED FOE EHUD BARAK TO DISCUSS FORMING A STRONG COALITION GOVERNMENT
  • Date: 8th February 2001
  • Summary: PSAGOT SETTLEMENT AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 8, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. VARIOUS: RESIDENTIAL AREA IN RAMALLAH LIT BY FLARES (2 SHOTS) 0.29 2. VARIOUS RED TRACER ROUNDS FIRED BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS SEEN IN DISTANCE 0.34 3. MV: AMBULANCE PARKED NEARBY 0.41 4. GV: MORE OF TRACER ROUNDS 0.48
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, West Bank, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA5DOTE702H2MBEKFAHQUU223EQ
  • Story Text: Israel's new leader Ariel Sharon met his defeated foe,
    Ehud Barak, on Friday (February 9) to discuss forming a
    coalition strong enough to face a Palestinian revolt.

    With violence continuing overnight in the West Bank and
    ahead of the planned Palestinian 'Day of Rage', security has
    been beefed up in and around Jerusalem.



    Palestinian gunmen traded fire with Israeli soldiers
    guarding the Jewish settlement of Psagot in the West Bank
    overnight. Witnesses said tracer rounds and flares lit the
    night sky for several hours, but no casualties were reported.

    In Jerusalem, Israel's new leader Ariel Sharon and the
    out-going prime minister, Ehud Barak smiled and shook hands
    before starting talks at the prime minister's office in
    Jerusalem that a spokesman for Sharon's Likud party said would
    cover "coalition issues".

    "We are happy to meet," Sharon told reporters before a
    meeting officially billed as talks on the transfer of power.

    The meeting followed lower-level talks between Sharon's
    Likud party and Labour which began just hours after a car bomb
    exploded in a religious Jewish area of Jerusalem.

    Sharon, who trounced Prime Minister Ehud Barak in an
    election on Tuesday, must form a coalition ahead of a late
    March deadline and pass the state budget or face a new poll
    for prime minister and parliament.

    Extra police and soldiers were brought into Jerusalem and
    checkpoints around the city ahead of Friday prayers.

    The Palestinians have called for "A Day of Rage" in
    reactions to the landslide victory of right wing hard-liner
    Sharon, who swept to power on a pledge to stamp out
    Palestinian violence in a four-month-old revolt against
    Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    At least 318 Palestinians, 52 Israelis and 13 Israeli
    Arabs have been killed in the uprising, which erupted after
    Sharon's visit to a Jerusalem site holy to Jews and Muslims in
    September.


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