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Netanyahu calls for new Israeli parliamentary election

Israel's right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Thursday for a new parliamentary election after Ehud Olmert pledged to resign following his party's leadership contest in September.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 11:16 July 31, 2008
  • Gulf News

Jerusalem: Israel's right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Thursday for a new parliamentary election after Ehud Olmert pledged to resign following his party's leadership contest in September.

Dogged by corruption scandals, the Israeli prime minister's decision to bow out of the centrist Kadima party's leadership contest on September 17 and then step down plunged the Middle East peace talks and Israeli politics into limbo.

Recent opinion polls suggest Netanyahu's Likud party, a critic of Olmert's peace moves with the Palestinians and Syria, would win a snap election.

"This government has reached an end and it doesn't matter who heads Kadima. They are all partners in this government's total failure," Netanyahu told Israeli Radio.

"National responsibility requires a return to the people and new elections."

Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a Kadima party leader and Olmert confidant, told Army Radio: "I believe the chance of holding new elections is high."

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Olmert, who could stay on as a caretaker prime minister for months while his Kadima successor struggles to cobble together a new coalition, has vowed not to "ease up" on peacemaking.

The White House said its goal of getting Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reach a peace deal this year was unchanged.

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