Peres, Shamir Fail to Agree on Power Shift
Shimon Peres, Israel’s caretaker prime minister, met with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir today for the second time in two days, but they failed to agree and their planned job switch was put off indefinitely.
Israel Radio said no further Peres-Shamir contacts were scheduled.
The meeting followed closed-door sessions between the two men and their supporters in the rival Labor Party and Likud bloc, aimed at resolving last-minute disputes.
Shamir, who was to have taken office Tuesday as the Jewish state’s ninth prime minister, refused to talk to reporters after today’s 1 1/2-hour session with Peres.
‘We Shall Not Move’
Industry and Trade Minister Ariel Sharon, a top man in the right-wing Likud, accused Labor of “trying to extort concessions from us” by holding up the job swap. “We shall not move,” he said on the radio.
Earlier, Likud ministers went to President Chaim Herzog to demand that he appoint Shamir as prime minister, a move which widened the gap with Peres’ leftist Labor Party.
Labor officials said the request violated the joint-rule agreement which calls for both parties to make a recommendation on Peres’ successor.
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