The Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau have agreed to join forces against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according the politician’s aides.
Gil Samsonov, an advisor of Netanyahu, held a meeting to coordinate between the headquarters of the two men, in which senior aides working for Netanyahu and Landau discussed a joint strategy for defeating Sharon in the upcoming Likud primaries.
The participants agreed to work together in an effort to bring forward the primaries, and thereby advancing the possibility of replacing Sharon as head of Likud.
The aides at the meeting agreed that the prime minister was playing for time, while preparing an independent party outside of Likud which he would then join, a goal the aides said should not be realized.
It was also agreed that the two men would part ways following the attainment of the joint target, after which they would pursuer their own interests.
In recent days, Landau has come under pressure by Netanyahu’s aides to give up his candidacy, and to throw his support behind Netanyahu’s primaries campaign.
Meanwhile, the prime minister has continued talks with senior Likud figures, including foreign minister Silvan Shalom who returned from Turkey. Shalom has denied reports claiming that he already decided to support Sharon in the campaign, but sources from Sharon’s office have said that the claims are accurate.
At the same time, Barak has continued to try and sell his initiative for all Labor primary candidates to throw in the towel and unify behind party leader Shimon Peres.
Barak met with, among others, Communications Minister Dalia Itzik, and is expected to meet with other senior Labor members in the near future.
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