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UK, Ireland to press Israel over passports

London, February 21, 2010

Israel's foreign minister will face sharp questions from his British and Irish counterparts in Brussels on Monday over Israel's alleged use of forged European passports by a team of assassins in Dubai.

Avigdor Lieberman will meet Britain's David Miliband and Ireland's Micheal Martin on the sidelines of a European Union foreign ministers' meeting, with Britain and Ireland wanting answers on what role Israel may have played in the faking of the passports and the killing of a Hamas commander.

Maintaining its policy of ambiguity on sensitive issues such as political assassinations, Israel has refused to comment on the Jan 19 killing of Palestinian Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in a luxury hotel room or the allegations of doctored documents.   

Dubai police say they believe Israeli agents carried out the assassination and have released the identities of 11 people travelling on passports from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany who they say were involved.

Several of those people have denied any role or that they have ever visited Dubai, leading investigators to suggest the Israeli overseas spy agency Mossad copied the passports and amended them to allow the assassins to enter the Emirate under false identities and carry out the killing.

Ireland's Martin said the issue was serious and he would be seeking an explanation when he meets Lieberman. "I intend ... to underline our deep concern about the fake use of passports in Dubai and to seek reassurance and clarification on this very serious issue," Martin told the Irish Times on Friday.

Britain and Ireland called in the Israeli ambassadors last week to discuss the issue, but received little in the way of explanation. The ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, said he was "unable to assist" the British with more information.

Miliband has urged Israel to cooperate as Britain conducts its own investigation into the falsified documents and said he would discuss it with Lieberman on Monday, but it is unclear how much light will be shed. Lieberman said last week there was no reason to believe Mossad was involved. -Reuters  




Tags: Dubai | Hamas | UK | Israel | Passport | murder |

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