Last update - 00:00 21/10/2007
Livni to appoint Druze MK Whbee as deputy foreign minister
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Druze MK Majalli Whbee reached an agreement Sunday to appoint the Kadima party member to the position of deputy foreign minister.
A previous bid to appoint Whbee as a deputy minister was abandoned after Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit refused to delegate him responsibilities.
Livni appointed Whbee to the position of director-general of her previous portfolio as regional development minister. Ties between the two turned sour, however, after Wahaba was quoted as saying in response to the possibility that Livni would be made defense minister that the position should not be given to a women.
Whbee has been a member of Knesset since 2003 and receives the support of 3,000 Kadima party members from the Druze sector. He has has been a member of a number of Knesset committees and in 2005 was made a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office.