Netanyahu Says Making Final Efforts To Form New Government Ahead Of Looming Deadline

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2019) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was making final efforts to form a new right-wing government, after receiving an extension to do so from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in April.

Netanyahu failed to finish coalition talks with Israeli right-wing and religious parties within 28 days that he had initially been given by Rivlin on April 19 after Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party won Israel's parliamentary elections on April 9. He thus requested from the president additional time for negotiations until May 29.

"I am making final efforts to form a new right-wing government to avoid unnecessary elections," Netanyahu said in a video posted to Twitter.

On Sunday, with three days left before the deadline, Likud legislator and Netanyahu ally Miki Zohar submitted a bill to dissolve Israel's parliament, which if not passed, gives Rivlin the right to nominate another party leader, presumably Netanyahu's opposition, Benny Ganz, to attempt to form a new government.

Reportedly, the reason Netanyahu has failed to form a government so far is due to a stalemate between him, his former defense minister, the nationalist Avigdor Liebarman, and Israel's religious parties over a military conscription bill governing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students.