Mansour Abbas
Mansour AbbasFlash90

Likud party members who spoke to the media after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu failed to form a government have denied that Netanyahu attempted to form a minority government supported from the outside by the United Arab List (UAL) and its chief, MK Mansour Abbas.

Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev (Likud) on Monday morning told Galei Zahal that, "The Likud absolutely did not try to form a government supported by the UAL. Did you not hear Netanyahu say that with his own mouth? It's a lie and a spin. We did not conduct negotiations with Abbas, and we do not conduct them. We don't need him - the one holding negotiations with the UAL and the Joint Arab List is [Yamina chief MK Naftali] Bennett."

MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud) on Sunday told Kol Barama Radio that "Netanyahu never thought, planned, or wanted to form a government based on the abstention of Mansour Abbas."

To News 12, Karhi denied that Likud had held negotiations with the United Arab List.

Despite the claims, Netanyahu and those close to him in the Knesset held many meetings with Mansour Abbas, attempting to persuade him to support a minority government of 59 MKs. What prevented such a government from being formed was the refusal of Religious Zionism's chief, MK Bezalel Smotrich, to join such a government.