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
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