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Ukraine’s opposition leader turns down proposal to become prime minister

President and opposition leaders arrived at a fundamental agreement on adopting the law on amnesty

KIEV, January 28, 2:12 /ITAR-TASS/. Leader of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party parliamentary faction, Arseny Yatsenyuk, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian rightwing irreconcilable opposition has turned down President Viktor Yushchenko’s proposal to take the post of Prime Minister, Justice Minister Yelena Lukash said late night Monday after a meeting between Yatseyuk and leaders of opposition factions in the Verkhovna Rada, the national parliament.

The meeting lasted more than four hours.

“Upon the outcome of the meeting, the sides arrived at a fundamental agreement on adopting the law on amnesty,” Lukash said. “The amnesty will take effect only if the protesters move out of all the buildings seized to date and unblock the road. Otherwise those who have been detained cannot be amnestied.”  

“Also, a political decision was taken to revoke the laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada January 16, which sparked numerous debates,” she said. “The laws that don’t bring up any remarks will be endorsed by parliament again January 28.”

“Provisions of the law that will lose effect will be scrutinized by the parties to the talks together,” Lukash said.

Leader of the Ukrainian rightwing oppositionist party UDAR, Vitaly Klichko, has made it clear to reporters he does not see any possibility for himself to take up a job on a new cabinet of ministers.

“There’s no discussing work in the government with me and no sense even in mentioning it,” he told reporters upon completion of a meeting between President Viktor Yanukovich and the leaders of three opposition parties where two other leading oppositionists, Arseny Yatsenyuk and Oleg Tyagnybok were present.

Yanukovich offered Yatsenyuk the post of Prime Minister and Klichko, the position of a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of humanitarian problems at a meeting with the leading trio of the irreconcilable opposition Saturday, at a meeting with the leading trio of the irreconcilable opposition January 25.