JERUSALEM: FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYS HE WILL ACCEPT OFFER TO BECOME FOREIGN MINISTER WITH CONDITIONS

Record ID: 400531

  • Title: JERUSALEM: FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYS HE WILL ACCEPT OFFER TO BECOME FOREIGN MINISTER WITH CONDITIONS
  • Date: 4th November 2002
  • Summary: (W6) JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 3, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. MV FORMER PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ARRIVING UNKNOWN LOCATION (3 SHOTS) 0.36 2.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA6KDNHH51LVCBGPYUI2O273VAQ
  • Story Text: Benjamin Netanyahu, a former Israeli prime minister,
    has said he would accept an offer to be foreign minister in a
    narrow right-wing government on condition the country headed
    for an early election.

    Netanyahu's conditional response to current Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon, his main rival in their right-wing Likud party,
    set the stage for additional political turmoil after Israel's
    coalition government collapsed last week.

    Sources close to Netanyahu, 53, who served as Likud
    prime minister from 1996 to 1999, said on Sunday (November 3)
    Sharon had yet to respond to the terms.

    Sharon is also trying to lure the ultranationalist
    National Union-Yisrael Beitenu faction into government to
    rebuild a shattered parliamentary majority, raising fears that
    Israel's next coalition will take an even harder line against
    the Palestinian uprising despite a U.S. desire for Middle East
    calm.

    "I said to the Prime Minister (Ariel Sharon) that I would
    agree to serve as foreign minister in a government that would
    go to early elections", Netanyahu said, hours after a meeting
    with Sharon.

    Under the proposal, Netanyahu would join a revamped
    government as foreign minister and Sharon would call an early
    general election. By law, Sharon must hold a national ballot
    no later than October 2003.

    Netanyahu's terms indicated he would still fulfil his
    pledge to challenge Sharon for the Likud leadership in the
    next election Israel holds.

    Opinion polls show the Likud growing to become the
    country's largest party in the 120-seat parliament by the next
    ballot, outstripping the centre-left Labour Party which left
    Sharon's coalition on Wednesday over funding for Jewish
    settlements.

    Sharon offered Netanyahu, popularly known as "Bibi," the
    Foreign Ministry post on Friday after Labour's exit, which
    also left the Defence Ministry vacant.

    Former army chief Shaul Mofaz, who led Israel's crackdown
    against the two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood
    until he stepped down in July, has accepted the defence
    portfolio. The appointment was to be brought to parliament for
    approval on Monday.

    Palestinian officials have expressed alarm at the prospect
    of an Israeli government dominated by right-wingers and
    ultranationalists.

    Both Netanyahu and Mofaz have advocated expelling
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Netanyahu has also come
    out against the creation of a fully-fledged Palestinian state.


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