Israeli president begins coalition consultations with political party

On Wednesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog began party consultations on whom to task with forming a new coalition government, as no faction won a majority needed to form a government in last week's election. Herzog met with representatives from the Religious Zionist Party to receive their recommendations for prime minister.

According to Israeli media, Herzog has broken with precedent in this round of coalition consultations by meeting first with delegations of smaller parties. It is learned that the consultations are expected to wrap up on Thursday evening.