Political crisis for Netanyahu as Israeli President Rivlin seeks to form new cabinet

In the meetings, the parties recommended which candidate the president should task with forming the next cabinet.

Rivlin started the one-day talks by meeting with lawmakers with the Likud, Netanyahu's right-wing party.

"The main consideration that will guide me is entrusting a lawmaker with the task who has the best chance of forming a government that will have the confidence of the new parliament," Rivlin said in televised remarks at the beginning of the talks.

The consultations are a formal procedure in Israel after elections, in which the 120 newly-elected members of the parliament, or the Knesset, give their recommendations on which leader should form the government.

The president then selects the candidate with the best chances of forming a government. At no time in Israel's history did a party win an outright majority to form a government. A coalition needs at least 61 members of the 120-member Knesset.

In the elections held on March 23, neither Netanyahu's allies nor his rivals gained enough votes to secure a 61-seat coalition. It was already the fourth elections in Israel in the past two years amid a lingering political stalemate.

The meeting came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed Monday, with a key witness painting a picture of an image-obsessed Israeli leader forcing a prominent news site to flatter his family and smear his opponents.

Netanyahu’s chances of securing another term in office following last month’s parliamentary elections appeared to be dwindling in high-stakes political talks hosted by the Israeli president just a few miles (kilometers) away.

In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu accused prosecutors of persecuting him in an attempt to undermine the will of the voters and to drive him out of office.

“This is what a coup attempt looks like,” he said.

Taken together, the court testimony and political consultations pointed to an increasingly uphill struggle for Netanyahu as he fights for his political life.