ISLAMABAD, 8 September 2005 — Pakistan will not recognize Israel until Palestinians get their own independent state, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz reassured Arab leaders yesterday, sources said.

The Pakistani premier spoke to his Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian counterparts and the Arab League’s secretary general to brief them about last week’s talks between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan, it said in a statement.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom last Thursday in Istanbul.

“The prime minister made it clear that the contact in Istanbul did not imply recognition by Pakistan of Israel,” it said.

“It was essentially meant to engage the Israelis to encourage them to resolve the Middle East problem.”

Aziz noted that Israel had taken a “significant step” by vacating Gaza and Pakistan wanted to see the process continue at an accelerated pace in the West Bank.

Aziz “re-affirmed Pakistans principled position” on the issue, emphasizing that recognition of Israel would depend on the establishment of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.

The Arab leaders appreciated Aziz’s briefing and expressed the hope that the contact between Israel and Pakistan would help the peace process in the Middle East, the Pakistani statement said.

Meanwhile, in a shocking revelation, a top opposition leader yesterday claimed that Israel planned to strike on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities two days before it tested nuclear bomb in May 1998, sources said.

“Pakistan received intelligence reports of a possible Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities two days before testing its nuclear bomb in May 1998,” Chaudhry Nsar Ali Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) acting parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, said.

Nisar told reporters the information was passed to the highest official levels by credible intelligence sources.

The intelligence report said Israeli fighter jets would fly from an Indian airbase and attack Pakistan’s nuclear sites to prevent Islamabad from conducting the nuclear explosions. “Thanks to that report we couldn’t sleep that night. Fortunately, it proved to be wrong,” he said.

The PML-N leader said that the intelligence report showed Pakistan and Israel were in a serious confrontation that could have led to a full-fledged armed conflict. He added that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities were still under threat from Israel. Nisar criticized the recent contact between Pakistan and Israel’s foreign ministers.

— Additional input from AFP.