Nir Barkat
Nir BarkatYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is expected to announce next week that he will not run for another term, Hadashot TV reported on Tuesday.

Municipal elections in Israel are scheduled for October.

According to the report, Barkat told his associates that after the approval of the municipal budget next week, he will announce his intention to run in the next Knesset elections for the Likud party.

Barkat, who was originally a member of the Kadima party, officially joined the Likud in 2015.

Barkat was considered to be a close associate of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu even before he became Likud member, and it is believed that Netanyahu refused to support the Likud candidate for mayor in the previous elections, Moshe Lion, due to his personal connection to Barkat.

In response to Tuesday’s report, Barkat’s office said, “Nothing has changed. Barkat intends to approve Jerusalem's highest budget ever this coming Thursday, thanks to the support he has raised from the government ministries. As promised, after the approval of the budget he will announce his decision."

A previous report in November also said that Barkat "will soon announce his decision not to run for a third term as mayor of Jerusalem and announce his intention to run in the Likud primaries."

The Jerusalem municipality rejected that report and said it was "a lie".