Israeli Leaders Settle Dispute, Clear Way for Shamir Takeover

A delegation representing acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ Labor Alignment asked President Chaim Herzog on Thursday to entrust the job of forming a new government to Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud Bloc, signaling the end of a controversy that has held up a scheduled transfer of power.

“They’re still sitting on nitty-gritties, but basically it’s over,” a government official said.

Herzog’s office announced later that he will meet with Shamir this morning to charge him with forming a government.

1984 Agreement

Peres resigned as prime minister last Friday, after 25 months in the post, as the first step in the changeover that he and Shamir agreed to when they formed the national unity government in September of 1984.

Shamir was scheduled to take over the top job on Tuesday, but disagreement developed with Peres over Cabinet appointments. The differences were reportedly settled at a Peres-Shamir meeting on Thursday afternoon, their fifth such meeting since the weekend. Peres has stayed on as caretaker prime minister pending resolution of the conflict.

Shamir is expected to present his government for parliamentary approval next Monday and to take over as head of government the next day. Under the terms of the coalition agreement, he is to be prime minister until November, 1988.

Full details of the settlement reached Thursday were not made public.

Victory for Shamir

But the Labor Party’s secretary general, Uzai Bar-Am, said in an interview with Israel army radio said the settlement includes a place in the new Cabinet for Likud’s Yitzhak Modai, a former minister of finance and minister of justice who was forced by Peres to resign last July after he repeatedly criticized Peres for the way he was running the government. The agreement was a victory for Shamir, who had insisted on Modai’s return to the government. Bar-Am said Modai will serve as a minister without portfolio.

The agreement also permits Peres to nominate ambassadors, and it gives both men what amounts to veto power over ambassadorial appointments. Peres had wanted to name his close aide, Yossi Beilin, 38, to the key post of ambassador to the United States but Shamir had resisted. Bar-Am said Peres will nominate an unspecified number of candidates for the job, and Shamir will have three months to approve one of those choices.