Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again put Iran at the top of the agenda. At the start of today's cabinet meeting today, he said, "I was briefed over the weekend on the major powers' talks with Iran on the nuclear issue.
The American representative briefed National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror on these talks. My impression from these talks is that the only thing that was achieved was to stall for time during which Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb, and it is indeed continuing toward this goal."
Netanyahu said, "I must say that at this time our enemies are uniting in order to bring about not only atomic weapons that could be used against us, but other deadly weapons that are piling up around us. At a time when they are coming together and uniting their efforts, we must come together and unite our forces in order to repel these dangers.
"I regret that this is not happening. I will continue my efforts in the coming days to try and unite our forces and bring them together ahead of the major national and international tasks that we face. I hope that I will succeed, I will continue to try."
Netanyahu also commented on his efforts to build a coalition. Yesterday, he obtained from President Shimon Peres a two-week extension to complete coalition negotiations, after his initial 28 days were insufficient. If Netanyahu cannot build a coalition after the extension, Peres will had the task over to someone else.
As of now, the strong alliance between Yesh Atid, headed by MK Yair Lapid, and Habayit Hayehudi, headed by MK Naftali Bennett, is solid, and they prefer a coalition without the haredi (ultra-orthodox) parties. Netanyahu prefer a coalition with haredi parties, which are seen has his natural allies in the government. So far, only Hatnua, headed by MK Tzipi Livni, has signed a coalition agreement to join Netanyahu's government.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 3, 2013
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