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Israel's Sharon, Barak to meet to Finalize Coalition Talks
Israeli outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon are expected to meet on Thursday in a bid to iron out remaining differences on the establishment of a national unity government.
Negotiators from Sharon's right-wing Likud Party and Barak's center-left Labor Party have held four rounds of talks on the issue, and it is said they are close to reaching an agreement.
Following Wednesday's fatal bus attack by a Palestinian driver near Tel Aviv, killing eight people, the Likud Party has called for an acceleration of the coalition talks.
Ehud Olmert, Jerusalem mayor and chairman of Likud's negotiating team, has accused Barak of holding up a final deal with his indecision on whether to accept Sharon's offer of the defense portfolio.
Barak, however, has said that he is torn between his desire to keep his promise to quit politics after he was defeated by Sharon in the prime ministerial election on February 6 and the call by many to serve as the defense minister in a national unity government.
Barak is expected to make his decision on Thursday.
Israel Radio reported on Thursday that the two parties still have differences over the number of portfolios that the Labor, the largest political faction in the Knesset (Parliament), will have.
The Likud, the second party, was demanding an equal number of portfolios, with the prime minister being excluded in this equation.
In response to reports that Barak and Sharon are to meet for a unity government, Interior Minister Haim Ramon sharply attacked Barak on Thursday, saying that Labor's "one-man rule" under Barak was over and the decision on its joining the proposed national unity government would be taken by the negotiating team and not by Barak alone.
"The period of one-man rule in the Labor Party ended exactly a week and two days ago," Ramon said, referring to Barak's defeat in the prime ministerial election on February 6.
He also urged Barak to honor his pledge to quit politics. If Barak took the post of defense minister in a new government, it would be "an attempt to escape responsibility for the worst (electoral) loss in the history of the Labor Party, which might have been prevented had Ehud Barak run things differently in every sphere."
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