PanARMENIAN.Net

Netanyahu to head Israeli government
20.02.2009 21:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Israeli
right-of-centre Likud party, has been asked to form Israel’s next
government.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel faced "great challenges" including the global
economic crisis and what he said was Iran’s wish to obtain nuclear
weapons. He said he would try to form a unity government with his
political rivals.

But Tzipi Livni, leader of the centrist Kadima, has suggested she
would rather be in opposition than join a government led by Mr
Netanyahu.

Kadima narrowly defeated Likud in the election held on 10 February,
but Mr Netanyahu has the support of religious and right-wing parties
in the Israeli parliament. His position was bolstered on Thursday when
Avigdor Lieberman, head of Yisrael Beiteinu, which favors tightening
the Israeli blockade on Gaza, said it wanted him to be prime minister.

President Shimon Peres and Mr Netanyahu held a news conference to
officially announce that the Likud leader now has six weeks to put
together a coalition.

He told the news conference he wanted to open talks with his political
rivals to form a "broad national unity government for the good of the
people and the state". He said, "I call on Kadima chairwoman Tzipi
Livni and Labour Party chairman Ehud Barak and I say to them – let’s
unite to secure the future of the State of Israel."

On Iran, Mr Netanyahu returned to a key campaign theme, suggesting
that Tehran had emerged as Israel’s greatest security threat, BBC
reports.