Report: Sarkozy urges Israeli premier to remove foreign minister

Jun 29, 2009, 20:44 GMT

Jerusalem - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and replace him with opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Israel's Channel 2 television news reported Monday night.

Sarkozy reportedly made the comment in a private meeting with Netanyahu in Paris last week.

According to the news report, Sarkozy told the Israeli leader that 'you need to get rid of this man. You need to remove him from this position.'

Sarkozy urged Netanyahu to replace the bellicose Lieberman with Livni, the foreign minister in the previous Israeli government, who refused to join the Netanyahu coalition because of differences over how to pursue the peace process with the Palestinians.

Sarkozy said that with Livni, leader of the centrist Kadima party, and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, of the centre-left Labour Party, in the government, Netanyahu could 'make history.'

Netanyahu said that Lieberman sounded different in private conversations, and Sarkozy replied that 'in private talks Jean-Marie Le Pen is also a nice person.'

When Netanyahu protested the comparison, Sarkozy conceded that Lieberman and Le Pen were not the same.

Channel 2 quoted Netanyahu's office as reacting to the story by saying that it would not discuss the contents of private talks that the Israeli premier held with foreign leaders.

Netanyahu greatly valued his foreign minister, the prime minister's office said.

A spokesman for Lieberman was quoted later by Israeli media as describing Sarkozy's remarks as 'the intervention of the president of a respected, democratic state in the affairs of another democratic state,' which was 'grave' and 'intolerable.'

'We expect that - regardless of political affiliation - all political bodies in Israel condemn this callous intervention of a foreign state in our internal affairs,' the spokesman said.