Ehud Olmert will not fire Tzipi Livni despite her call for him to step down. On Sunday the two held their first face-to-face meeting since the foreign minister said publicly last week that the prime minister should resign in light of an Israeli commission of inquiry that criticized his handling of the Lebanon war.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement following Sunday’s talks that the two had “agreed to continue working together as part of the government headed by Ehud Olmert.” Livni, speaking to reporters, described her job as Israel’s top diplomat as “definitely not a personal matter for me or the prime minister.”
Livni and Vice Premier Shimon Peres are Olmert’s more senior deputies, but the prospects of Olmert being unseated faded after he was endorsed by their Kadima Party faction after the Winograd Commission report was issued.
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