No plan now to strike Iran’s N-sites: Sharon

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, following talks with US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, said Israel was not planning a military strike ...

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, following talks with US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, said Israel was not planning a military strike on Iran to prevent it from getting the bomb.

‘‘Israel is not leading the struggle. Of course, we exchange intelligence, we exchange views, we discuss (these) issues, but it’s not that we are planning any military attack on Iran,’’ Sharon told CNN in an interview. ‘‘Of course, we take all precautions and all the steps to defend ourselves. But it’s not that Israel should give the answer to the international problem,’’ Sharon told Fox News in a separate interview.

Widely believed to be the West Asia’s only nuclear power, Israel sent jets to bomb the Iraqi reactor at Osiraq in 1981, driving Saddam Hussein’s quest for the bomb underground and fueling recent speculation that it might attack Iran.

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In another development on Thursday, outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn was named an international special envoy to help coordinate economic and political aspects of Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said his task would include reviving the Palestinian economy and issues like the fate of Israeli housing blocks if Israel carries out its plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 settlements in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian gunman in a raid in a West Bank refugee camp and a leading militant group vowed retaliation. — Reuters