YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu took the office of the country’s defense minister, TASS reported.

“I am taking the office of a defense minister for the first time and I know that I am doing this at a time when there are many critics of the state policy in the security field”, he said in a televised address.

The office of the country’s defense minister has been vacant since November 14 when the former minister, Avigdor Lieberman stepped down after his party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), had withdrawn from the government coalition over disagreement with the tough policy towards the Gaza Strip. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan