Sharon to offer Labor either treasury or foreignportfolio

Ha'aretz ^ | 1 February 2003 | Yossi Verter

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Sharon to offer Labor either treasury or foreign portfolio
By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet Labor Party Chairman Amram Mitzna on Monday to ask him to join his government. Sharon will offer the party either the finance or foreign portfolio, according to senior Likud sources.

On Friday, Sharon met Shinui leader Yosef Lapid, and the two agreed to set up coalition negotiation teams.

MK Shimon Peres, who supports entering into coalition negotiations with the Likud, denied Saturday that he was secretly negotiating, directly or indirectly, with Sharon. Although the chances of Labor's joining the government are slim, Sharon would prefer to see Peres resume his office as foreign minister, the sources said.

Sharon and Lapid met at the premier's Sycamore Ranch on Friday morning and discussed Shinui's joining the government, despite Lapid's previous promise that his party would not join a coalition without Labor. Lapid told Sharon that Shinui would not take part in a government with Shas.

The sources said over the weekend that Sharon cannot blacklist Shas, but he could set conditions that would significantly curtail the ultra-Orthodox party's power. Tough terms regarding a coalition agreement with Shas, including the number of portfolios it would receive, might allow Shinui to take part in a government with Shas.

"Shinui is very eager to join," a Likud source said. "It will have to understand that revolutions are not made in a day."

A source close to Sharon said that as soon as Likud and Shinui were to form a government without the extreme right-wing National Union, it will win the public's support and Labor will gain nothing by remaining in the opposition. "An opposition party can build itself up when the public is strongly opposed to the government's way," the source said. "But a government based on Likud and Shinui will make political and economic progress, and Labor would be able to do nothing on the outside."

Knesset factions will begin their visits to the president Sunday to recommend who should form the government. The president is expected to appoint Sharon with that task at the end of the week.

Sharon issued a statement Friday denying rumors that he would offer the portfolio to Labor, and made it clear that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz will remain in office in the next cabinet.