Israel's president on Wednesday chose Yair Lapid, a centrist politician and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest rival, to try to form a new government, but his path to success was still uncertain.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rivlin announced that following a series of consultation talks earlier in the day with leaders of other parties, he came to the conclusion that Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party has "the highest chances" of forming a new government, reports by Xinhua news.

During the consultation talks with Rivlin, Naftali Bennet, leader of a seven-seat nationalist party called Yamina, said he is not ruling out a coalition with Lapid.

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Ra'am, the party of the Islamic movement in Israel which holds four seats in the parliament, said he "will cooperate in a positive way with anyone who will be tasked with forming the government".

Rivlin said he is hopeful that "a stable government" will be established to avoid the fifth round of elections in two years, following a series of inconclusive previous ones and a lingering political deadlock.

Israel's longest-serving leader, Netanyahu, 71, has been fighting to hold onto office through four inconclusive elections since 2019 and corruption allegations that he denies.

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