Israel's president begins consultations with parties after election deadlock

Israel's President Isaac Herzog has begun consultations with political parties on whom to task with forming a new coalition government, after he received the official results of a general election last week he said had no clear winner. Herzog told party leaders that "not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled" if they want to avoid a new election.

Earlier, electoral officials said there was no evidence of irregularities and that unsubstantiated claims by Netanyahu's camp of Arab-led parties "stealing" the election did not justify delaying the results' certification. The Shin Bet security service is investigating allegations of foreign interference in the election, but the head of the Central Elections Committee stressed that they would not fundamentally change the outcome.

In the election on 27 October, Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Eisenkot's centrist Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties in his bloc won 48.