Ehud Olmert will not fire Tzipi Livni despite
her call for him to step down. On Sunday the two held
their first face-to-face meeting since the foreign minister said publicly last week that
the prime minister should resign in light of an Israeli commission of
inquiry that criticized his handling of the Lebanon war.
The Prime
Minister’s Office said in a statement following Sunday’s talks that the two
had “agreed to continue working together as part of the government headed by
Ehud Olmert.” Livni, speaking to reporters, described her job as
Israel’s top diplomat as “definitely not a personal matter for me or the
prime minister.”
Livni and Vice Premier Shimon Peres are Olmert’s more
senior deputies, but the prospects of Olmert being unseated faded after he was
endorsed by their Kadima Party faction after the Winograd Commission report
was issued.
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