Israel's right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon vowed Tuesday to do all he can to topple Prime Minister Ehud Barak, saying he would be making a "historic mistake" by offering concessions to the Palestinians on Jerusalem.
"He told me that he will know during the course of the month if (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat is ready to accept his concessions," Likud party chairman Sharon told Israeli radio following a phone call with Barak.
"I told him that these concessions were a historic mistake because they concern Jerusalem, which belongs to all the Jewish people," Sharon said.
"We must not get rid of all our assets without achieving peace and I repeat, we are doing all in our power to overthrow the government," he added.
Barak is currently in New York where both he and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are due to meet separately with US President Bill Clinton in a bid to hammer out a peace deal by a September 13 deadline.
The Israeli prime minister, who lost his parliamentary majority in July amid dissent over his peace policies with the Palestinians, last month urged Likud to join a national unity government if no peace deal is reached.
"It is not inconceivable that if the prime minister should return from the United States without an agreement with the Palestinians, the first to be invited for a meeting and to join the coalition will be the Likud faction members," a senior political source told the Maariv newspaper.
In August, parliament backed on preliminary reading a Likud bill calling for early elections but the 120-member is on its summer recess until late October - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
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