Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will on Monday grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two more weeks to form a governing coalition.
The Prime Minister, whose Likud party won the 17 March general elections, will brief the president on how coalition talks are going before they deliver a joint statement to the press.
Likud sources said Netanyahu was going to the president’s residence in Jerusalem Monday morning, two days ahead of Wednesday night's deadline to ask for an extension, just in order to enable the president to prepare for Remembrance Day ceremonies and not due to the state of the talks.
Netanyahu will have until May 6 to build a coalition after not succeeding at finalizing a deal with any party through the first four weeks of negotiations.
The Likud negotiating team will hold lengthy meetings with representatives of Bayit Yehudi and Kulanu at the Knesset Monday in an effort to draft coalition agreements. A source on Kulanu's negotiating team said talks with Likud would continue "until the middle of the night" and would still not finalize a deal.
The Likud’s coalition negotiating team met Sunday with representatives of Kulanu, Shas and United Torah Judaism in an effort to finalize agreements with them.
Completing deals with the three parties would enable Netanyahu to tell Rivlin he already has 53 MKs set to enter his coalition, with Habayit Hayehudi and Yisrael Beitenu on the way.
Likud officials refuted a report in daily Ha'aretz that Netanyahu was considering trying to persuade Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog to break off from his faction with another seven Knesset members who would join the coalition and receive portfolios.