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Sharon
announced early elections within 90 days after Labor quit his
national unity government
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, November 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Far-right
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Tuesday, November 5, he
was calling early elections within 90 days after the decision by the
Labor party to quit his national unity government.
"Elections
are not what the state needs," said Sharon, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
But
he stressed that after Labor's walk-out and the
"unacceptable" demands of right-wing parties to form a new
coalition, elections were "the least damaging option."
With
an eye on the emerging election campaign, Sharon made a dig at Labor
for putting "irresponsible political reasons" ahead of
national interest.
"We
are facing difficult challenges today, perhaps more complex than we
have ever faced," said the hardliner, whose 20-month national
unity coalition collapsed October 30 when Labor pulled out in a row
over Sharon’s preferential funding to illegal Jewish settlements.
In
a hard-hitting speech, he added that he would not bow to what he
described as "political blackmail" from any party or person,
after slamming the ultra-nationalist National Union bloc for refusing
to shore up his narrowed down coalition.
Israeli
President Moshe Katsav
earlier said at a press conference Tuesday that Sharon had asked him
to dissolve the parliament and hold early elections, adding that he
had agreed to do so.
"The
prime minister filled me in on the latest developments and said he had
come to the conclusion there was in the Knesset a majority which was
preventing him from forming an alternative stable government," Katsav
said.
Earlier
Tuesday, the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz said that Sharon
is expected to announce his resignation, which he did not eventually
do.
"Sharon
is expected to announce that he has resigned as prime minister and
that general elections will be held within 90 days," said the
paper.
Sources
close to Sharon said Monday, Novemebr 4, that if the National
Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction continued to dig in its heels over
joining a narrow coalition led by Sharon, there would be no
alternative but to call fresh elections within 90 days, the paper
said.
Under
Israeli law, new elections would have to be held within 90 days of the
resignation of Sharon,
a hardliner who watched the center-left Labor party walk out last week
in a feud over Sharon’s funding of Jewish settlements at the expense
of social services.
