A deputy to Ariel Sharon said on Sunday there was no immediate plan to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat despite renewed threats by the Israeli prime minister.
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not intend to put something into action this very week, or today or tomorrow," Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Army Radio.
"He set out a position in principle regarding Arafat and the immunity he (Arafat) thought he enjoyed."
Sharon, in comments that could rally support in his right wing Likud party before its May 2 vote on his plan to unilaterally pull out from Gaza, has said he no longer felt bound by a pledge he made three years ago to US President George W. Bush not to harm Arafat.
Washington responded by bluntly telling Israel to stick to its pledge. Arafat was defiant.
"I want to tell Sharon and his gang that the mountain cannot be shaken by the wind," the Palestinian leader said on Saturday at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he has been under virtual Israeli siege for more than two years.
VATICAN CONDEMNS ISRAELI THREATS:
VATICAN CITY: A leading prelate of the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday criticised Israel's threat to kill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafa, asking what right it believed it had to take such action.
"We must not have double standards," said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, in an interview with leading Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
"If we are to speak of international law, it must apply to Italy, Iraq, Israel and Palestine," said the cleric, whose title makes him effectively second man in the Roman Catholic Church after Pope John Paul II.
"Where is the law today in Israel?" Sodano asked: "What legislation anywhere in the world authorises such action?" "The Holy See has not forgotten the law," Sodano continued. "There are United Nations resolutions which must be applied and which we must not forget. If we want the rule of law, let's begin here."
Sharon's threats against Arafat were condemned around the world Saturday.