 |
Israel's Sharon to Set up Forum of Consultation
Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon has decided to establish a five-member consultation forum, Israel Radio reported on Friday.
The members will be Sharon, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak, outgoing Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres, Chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party Eli Yishai and a minister from Sharon's right-wing Likud Party, the radio said.
Barak, Peres and Yishai are all expected to take ministerial posts in a proposed national unity government under Sharon, who won a stunning victory over Barak in the prime ministerial election on February 6.
The planned forum will be in charge of dealing with security issues as well as sensitive issues related to the function and operation of the government.
Meanwhile Israel's Army Radio reported that senior members of the Shas, the third largest political faction in the Knesset (parliament) after Barak's Labor and the Likud, said on Friday that Yishai would be appointed interior minister in the incoming unity government.
They said that Yishai has received an unofficial promise from Sharon regarding the issue.
However, Yuli Edelstein, parliament member of Yisrael Ba'aliya, a party of immigrants, said that his party was continuing coalition negotiations with the Likud in the hope of attaining the interior portfolio.
In their private talks Thursday evening, Barak and Sharon reportedly agreed on the portfolios their respective parties are to take.
Barak, who has accepted Sharon's offer to retain the defense portfolio, has also asked for the foreign ministry portfolio for the Labor, possibly to be taken by Peres, also a former prime minister and Nobel peace laureate.
Labor is reportedly to have seven portfolios while the Likud is to occupy eight, including the premiership.
In This Section
|