TIMES ONLINE: The Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu was in pole position to become Israel's next Prime Minister despite narrowly failing to win the country's general election, after an ultra-nationalist political leader pledged to back his coalition today.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beitenu party, which finished third, said he would only support a government led by Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, but which also included the centrist Kadima party led by the election-winner, Tzipi Livni.
Whether Ms Livni, whose party narrowly won the February 10 poll by 28 seats to 27 for Likud, would agree to serve in a government with Mr Netanyahu as Prime Minister remains to be seen.
However, she has previously said that she would be prepared to lead a government which included Likud as a junior partner, with Mr Netanyahu presumably in a senior Cabinet role.
A right-leaning Netanyahu-led government would be regarded with gloom by President Obama and the so-called Quartet of international mediators, who had hoped to accelerate the Middle East peace process. >>> David Byers | Thursday, February 19, 2009
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