Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor LiebermanFlash 90

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that his party, Yisrael Beytenu, would not lend its hand to concessions in the Golan Heights, even if it meant that the coalition had to be dismantled and the party would wind up in the opposition.

Lieberman said, at a party meeting, that he believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's denial of the report that Israel had offered to withdraw from the Golan in secret negotiations with Syria. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has also said he believes Netanyahu and Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said it was part of a smear campaign against Netanyahu by newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

Lieberman said that there were also no negotiations about the Golan Heights in the government of Kadima under Ehud Olmert, in which he was a partner.

He said that Yisrael Beytenu was a central partner in the present coalition and would continue to be a partner in a nationalist-led coalition after the elections.