Скачать или смотреть ISRAEL: ARIAL SHARON CONFIRMED AS LIKUD PARTY LEADER

(3 Sep 1999) English/Nat
Ariel Sharon has been confirmed as the leader of Israel's opposition right-wing
Likud party after easily seeing off two challengers in a vote by party members.
The legendary and controversial ex-general decisively won the party's leadership election on Thursday.
He is expected to lead the Likud out of the abyss created by Ehud Barak's crushing defeat of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May elections.
Ariel Sharon is still being congratulated by supporters after winning the Likud Party's leadership on Thursday.
The 71-year-old won 52 percent of the votes, more than enough to make him the outright victor without a second round run-off.
His opponents, Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert and former finance minister Meir Sheetrit, each took 24 percent and 22 percent of the votes respectively.
Sharon became acting head of Likud after Ehud Barak, who heads the Labour Party, trounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May elections.
Netanyahu then quit as party leader after his defeat.
A new vote will be held in two years to determine who will be the Likud candidate in the next general election and analysts are speculating that the interval could give Netanyahu time to mount a comeback.
The hard-line Likud opposes most compromise with the Palestinians for peace.
Under Netanyahu, peace talks were largely stalled.
New Prime Minister Ehud Barak has pledged to move forward quickly towards making peace with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.
However Sharon claims that Barak is making irresponsible and dangerous concessions to the Palestinians in his negotiations to implement a land-for-security agreement.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Prime Minister Barak made many concessions without getting anything in return and I think that he was ready to give up all achievements in the Wye agreement. The Wye agreement altogether was a way to reduce the dangers of the Oslo agreement which was very complicated and dangerous. In the Wye agreement there were some achievement and I was sorry to see that Mr. Barak gave up without getting anything in return the achievements of the Wye agreement".
SUPER CAPTION: Ariel Sharon, Likud Party Leader
Ariel Sharon's first act as opposition leader will be to meet U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday.
She is in the region mediating the land-for-security deal between Barak's government and the Palestinians.

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