Palestinian officials said that with Lieberman, who lives in a
settlement in the occupied West Bank, back in the cabinet prospects for
reviving statehood negotiations that collapsed in 2014 had grown dimmer.
Netanyahu clinches coalition deal, makes far-right Lieberman defence chief
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clinched a coalition deal on Wednesday that will make far-right opposition legislator Avigdor Lieberman defence minister and broaden a razor-thin governing majority in parliament, officials said.
The
agreement on a political partnership will be signed at 11 a.m. (0800
GMT), a negotiator for Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu
party said.
Since winning an election last year,
Netanyahu has said he would explore options to widen his one-seat
majority in the legislature, and he began negotiations with Lieberman
after coalition talks failed last week with the centre-left Zionist
Union, the main opposition party.
Lieberman's
return to power - he is a former foreign minister - is likely to stir
disquiet at home and abroad given his past rhetoric against Israel's
Arab minority, U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians and
regional powers Egypt and Turkey.
Palestinian
officials said that with Lieberman, who lives in a settlement in the
occupied West Bank, back in the cabinet prospects for reviving statehood
negotiations that collapsed in 2014 had grown dimmer.
The
pact between Netanyahu's conservative Likud party and Yisrael Beitenu,
after several days of intensive negotiations, will give the four-term
prime minister control of 67 of parliament's 120 seats, up from his
current majority of 61.
"Broadening the
government, with the inclusion of the Yisrael Beitenu party in the
nationalist coalition, is an important and required step that will
ensure its stability," Likud negotiator Yariv Levin said in a statement, confirming an agreement had been reached.
Lieberman's
swearing in as defence minister was expected to take place next week,
with Netanyahu holding the second-most important cabinet post in the
interim.
Yisrael Beitenu will become the sixth party in Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition.
Netanyahu
has said the coalition deal, which prompted Moshe Yaalon, a Likud
member and former general, to quit as defence minister in protest on
Friday, would stabilise the government and enable policymaking.
In
a surprise move last week, Lieberman, who has had a testy relationship
with Netanyahu, voiced his willingness to negotiate a coalition
agreement after it appeared the Israeli leader was nearing a deal with
the Zionist Union.
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