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Peres lost the leadership of the Labor Party earlier this month and has not said explicitly if he will leave the party for Sharon's ahead of March 28 elections. (AP)
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| By Associated Press November 29, 2005 |
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Shimon Peres is poised to leave the Labor Party, his political home for 60 years, Labor officials said Tuesday, though Israel's elder statesman has not made a formal announcement yet.
Peres, who lost the race for Labor leader earlier this month, is widely expected to join forces with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and was to hold a news conference Wednesday.
Officials in Sharon's new party, Kadima, said Peres hasn't made a final decision yet. A Sharon aide said earlier Tuesday that Peres had already made a decision, but later clarified he was not in a position to know.
Peres was in Barcelona on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Yoram Dori, declined comment when asked whether Peres has made a decision. "I'm not prepared to discuss it," Dori said.
Earlier Tuesday, a Labor lawmaker, Dalia Itzik, announced she is joining Sharon's new party. Itzik is close to Peres, and a senior Labor official said her departure signaled that her mentor Peres would do the same.
"It looks like a package deal," party secretary-general Eitan Cabel told Army Radio. "We spoke about their remaining (in Labor) and not defecting to another party, but apparently things were already sealed, and the talks with us were nothing but a smokescreen."
Peres lost the leadership of the Labor Party earlier this month and has not said if he would leave the party for Sharon's ahead of March 28 elections.
"The decision is a tough one for me," he said in remarks broadcast Monday before leaving Israel for a EU-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona, Spain. "It will take another day or two before I decide."
Itzik later told Army Radio that Peres is really torn. "It could turn out that he will be in one place and I will be in another," she said.
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