'Amidror's resignation was agreed upon two years ago'

The Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday vehemently denied a report in Haaretz that National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror was being forced to resign due to a conflict of interests pertaining to Israel's natural gas deals, saying in a statement that "the report is false."

It was reported recently that Amidror was expected to leave his current post in the coming months.

The PMO denied that Amidror was being forced to resign due to differences of opinion with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that the sides had agreed in conjunction on the length of his term when Amidror first took the position.

According to the PMO statement: "In complete contrast to the claim [in Haaretz], there is no connection between [Amidror's] resignation and what was referred to in the newspaper as 'a concern over a conflict of interests in the gas market.' It was agreed upon in advance, when he entered the position over two years ago, that the date for National Security Adviser Amidror's conclusion of duties would be the end of this year."

In the meantime, information regarding Amidror's alleged involvement in the energy resource market made its way to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein. The Attorney-General's Office said in a statement that "the attorney-general requested a response from Amidror regarding this information, in light of the declaration of conflicting interests Amidror signed upon entering the position. Amidror gave the attorney-general his response, and the matter is currently under examination by the Justice Ministry for the purpose of formulating the attorney-general's stance on the matter."

The OMETZ organization (for maintaining normative governmental systems, enforcing law and order and improving civic standards) said on Tuesday that "Amidror's impending resignation is connected, among other factors, to the inquiry request submitted by OMETZ a few days ago."

A response from Haaretz was unavailable as of print time late Tuesday.