After accepting the president’s invitation to form the next coalition gov’t, PM urges Abbas to return &  resume peace talks, says main objectives of new gov’t are dealing with the Iranian threat, equalizing national burden and improving economy.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on all factions in the 19th Knesset to join a unity government, after accepting President Shimon Peres’ invitation to form the coalition on Saturday night.

Netanyahu called on leaders of parties that announced they would not sit in his government to reconsider and stressed the need to form the broadest coalition possible in order to deal with issues the State of Israel is facing, both domestically and internationally.

“We have to put aside what divides us so that we can have peace among ourselves and with our neighbors,” he said.

In this context, the prime minister also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table.

The focus in his next term would be on stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Netanyahu said, as well as dealing with other security threats in the region.

Domestically, the prime minister said the economy must be improved and more jobs must be created. He added that issues that have not been dealt with since the creation of the state must be dealt with now in order to avoid a civil war, this includes equalizing the national burden to all sectors of the population.

82 MKs from six parties recommended Netanyahu for the role of prime minister during meetings with the president on Wednesday and Thursday.

Peres said he hoped the forming of the next government could be done “as quickly as possible because the State of Israel requires political and economic stability.”

View original Jerusalem Post publication: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=301869