Israeli Foreign Minister from the center-right Likud party
Silvan Shalom agreed on Thursday evening to resign from the
government on Friday after initially refusing to quit until Sunday,
local newspaper Ha'aretz reported on its online
edition.
Shalom made the decision following an reconciliation meeting
with Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Thursday
evening, according to the report.
Earlier on Thursday, Shalom rejected Netanyahu's order that
demanded Likud ministers to resign from the cabinet by 10 AM (08:00
GMT) on Thursday when Likud Central Committee starts a meeting to
choose the party's list for the March 28 general elections.
Shalom had asserted that he would not quit until Sunday. Sources
close to Shalom were quoted as saying that the four Likud ministers
including Shalom were taken by surprise by Netanyahu's order as the
party chairman had not personally discussed with them over the
resignation timetable before announcing the ultimatum.
Shalom did not oppose the idea of quitting the cabinet, but the
manner Netanyahu ordered the ministers to resign was unacceptable,
the sources added.
But Shalom finally changed his mind after the meeting with
Netanyahu and announced that he would not attend the weekly cabinet
meeting on Sunday, the newspaper said.
On late Wednesday, Netanyahu, who was elected Likud chairman
last month, formally issued the resignation order, a move seen as
posing a challenge to Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who is a
close ally with ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in their
newly-founded Kadima party.
Health Minister Dan Naveh, Education Minister Limor Livnat and
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, all from Likud, presented to
Netanyahu their resignations on late Thursday morning. Meanwhile,
Likud Central Committee was engaged in heated discussion over the
party's list for the upcoming parliamentary ballot as latest polls
showed that the centrist Kadima party would beat both Likud and the
center-left Labor party in the elections. Netanyahu vowed to
withdraw Likud ministers out of the coalition government after
being elected party head. But the walkout, originally scheduled for
Sunday, had been postponed due to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
sudden grave illness. Likud ministers' resignation will leave
Olmert with only six active ministers, all members of the Kadima
party. But analysts said the Likud move would not deal a hard blow
to the caretaker cabinet.
The massive Likud resignations came against a backdrop of
intensifying election campaigning as Likud is trailing far behind
Kadima in the polls.
In November, Sharon left Likud, a party he helped found decades
ago, to shed rightists' bundle and win a free hand he said
necessary toward a settlement to the decades-long
Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The veteran Israeli politician has been hospitalized since last
Wednesday's massive stroke. He has remained in critical but stable
condition despite latest slight improvements.
Despite polls giving favor to Kadima, analysts expect an open
race of the coming ballot as medical experts said that even if
Sharon survives, he is unlikely to return to the Israeli political
stage.
(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2006)
