World Tribune.com




Sharon says Barak offered him Foreign or Finance Minister

By Elli Sinclair
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, June 23, 1999

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- In a move that surprised his prospective left-wing coalition partners, Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak resumed talks with the Likud Party and sources said the two sides arrived at a series of agreements.

The agreements, Likud party sources said, include a formula for the number of ministerial portfolios, a choice of leading ministries for party chairman Ariel Sharon and the foreign policy direction of Barak's new government.

"I think that we can establish a government in which the Likud will be a real partner and could participate in the fateful decision that we all face," Sharon told reporters. "I think that all of the problems can be dealt with quickly."

Still, Likud negotiators who met with Barak aides on Tuesday remained skeptical. They said their party and Barak are divided over negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and the future of construction of Jewish housing in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"The Likud is not going into a coalition," Likud minister Moshe Katsav said. "There are serious gaps and I don't know how we will bridge them."

Likud Party sources said the agreements came during a late-night meeting between Barak and Sharon. The two men began a second meeting on Tuesday evening in Jerusalem. That session is to be followed by a Sharon meeting with Likud leaders.

Earlier, Sharon briefed Likud leaders on the meeting with Barak. Party sources quoted Sharon as saying that he obtained from Barak a pledge that the Likud chairman would become either foreign minister or finance minister in the next government.

Sharon also said that Barak will not resume the negotiations with Syria from the point where it was halted under the government of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Syria asserts that Rabin had said he would be ready to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

The Likud leaders were also told that Barak agreed to the formation of a panel of ministers to administer the negotiations with Israel's Arab neighbors. Sharon said he will serve on the panel, which will contain an equal number of ministers from right-wing and left-wing parties. Barak would chair the committee.

Likud leaders who met with Sharon said Barak indicated that he would not stop current settlement projects. Barak, however, would review Likud settlement plans that have not yet been launched.

Sharon also said Barak would grant a minister for every four parliamentarians who join the coalition. This would mean that Likud, with 19 seats in parliament, would receive up to five ministers.

The flurry of meetings took Barak's left-wing allies by surprise. The left-wing Meretz Party, with 10 seats in the Knesset, said it would suspend negotiations with Barak until it receives clarifications regarding his talks with the Likud.

"Meretz is very worried about the resumption of talks with the Likud under the leadership of Ariel Sharon," Meretz chairman Yossi Sarid said. "In accordance with the results, Meretz will decide whether it will join this coalition."

Several Labor Party leaders did not appear enthusiastic over the resumption of talks. "Let's say I was not surprised," Knesset member Yossi Beilin said in a radio interview on Tuesday. "If the Likud comes with positions against a Palestinian state and withdrawal from the Golan Heights there is no basis to be part of the coalition."

Wednesday, June 23, 1999


Contact World Tribune.com at worldtri@worldtribune.com

Return to World Tribune.com front page