News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has offered Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor the assignment of being Israel's special envoy in talks for the release of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, according to a Monday night report on Channel One Israel government television.

Meridor is weighing the proposal, which was made a month after the meeting between Netanyahu and former envoy Ofer Dekel, in which it was decided that Dekel would not remain on the assignment. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office who were cited by Ynet called Meridor an appropriate choice and noted that he was recently sent to London on an unspecified assignment.

Shalit's parents said that they expected an announcement on a new envoy this week and a decision is expected in the next few days. Other candidates are Yisrael Beiteinu MK Yisrael Hasson, attorney Pinchas Marinski and Lior Lotan, Executive Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a former head of the Israel Defense Forces' hostage-negotiation team.