Shamir Given 21 More Days to Form New Israeli Government

Caretaker Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Thursday received a 21-day extension on his mandate to form Israel’s new government.

Shamir, whose mandate was due to expire today, was granted the extension by President Chaim Herzog.

“I hope I would not need all that period and would finish with it before it expires. I don’t want to name a date, but I hope it would be soon,” Shamir told reporters outside Herzog’s residence.

Shamir, head of the right-wing Likud Party, indicated he asked for extra time because of disputes with potential partners over the distribution of Cabinet posts as well as over the next government’s guidelines.

“Each party has its aspirations and demands, and I have to worry about the overall picture,” he said.

Shamir has tentative agreements that would give him a bare majority in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament). But he has been unable to sign pacts with three ultra-rightist parties and three Orthodox religious factions.

The right-wing Tehiya party announced Thursday it will not join his government because of Likud’s failure to meet party demands for government posts.

The radical right-wing Moledet, meanwhile, said its ideological differences with Likud could not be bridged. Moledet advocates expulsion of Arabs from Israeli-occupied territories and opposes Shamir’s plan for granting Palestinians limited autonomy.

Israel has been governed by Shamir’s 13-member transition Cabinet since March 15, when the national unity government of Likud and the leftist Labor Party collapsed. The Labor Party helped engineer the fall over Shamir’s refusal to accept U.S. proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.

Herzog first asked Labor leader Shimon Peres to try to form a government. However, Peres failed and was forced to hand the mandate to Shamir last month.

Despite the entangled coalition talks with small parties, Shamir ruled out a new alliance with Labor. “I did not discuss this possibility with Mr. Peres, and I think it is not realistic today,” he said.

In another development, Labor said it will delay publication of an internal report placing blame for the party’s poor showings in 1988 and 1989 elections. The report is said to criticize Peres.