By DPA
Jerusalem : Hardline Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation Wednesday over the start of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
His far-right “Israel Our Home” faction quit the coalition, leaving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with a slender seven-member majority in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament), down from 78.
Israel Our Home, a pro-settler faction that caters largely to right-wing immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has 11 seats in the Knesset.
Lieberman told a news conference in Jerusalem that he spoke to Olmert and handed him his letter of resignation.
“I don’t have to explain why the negotiations on the core issues are a critical issue,” he said.
“It is clear to everyone that nothing will come of these negotiations,” he said, adding he was opposed in principle to negotiations according to the concept of “land for peace” and calling these a “fateful mistake.”
“Anyone who says the reason for the conflict is territory is deluding himself and others.”
Lieberman joined the coalition after the second Lebanon war in the summer of 2006, when Olmert, under fierce criticism over his handling of the war, sought to widen and stabilize his coalition.
Olmert’s and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s negotiators began long-delayed negotiations on the “core issues,” including the status of Jerusalem, the future borders of a Palestinian state and the Palestinian refugee problem, Monday.
The talks are a result of last week’s visit by US President George W. Bush.