JERUSALEM
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he would resign his position and that his political party would not take part in Israel's incoming government.
Lieberman was quoted on Monday by Israeli daily Haaretz as saying that the coalition government currently being set up by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "the embodiment of opportunism."
"Our dilemma was principles, not seats [in the government]," Lieberman, who leads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, said at a press conference in Jerusalem, according to the newspaper.
"We did indeed receive the Foreign Ministry in full during negotiations, along with the Immigrant Absorption Ministry," he said.
He added: "We have reached the clear and unequivocal conclusion that it would not be right from our perspective to join the present coalition."
Last week, Netanyahu managed to hash out coalition agreements with Israel's centrist Kulanu Party and the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judaism party, securing 14 Knesset seats in his effort to form a new government, according to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Late last month, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin officially tasked Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, with forming Israel's incoming government.
won 30 seats in March's Knesset (parliament) election, while its closest rival, the Zionist Union Party, came in second with 24 seats.
