Israel envoy 'must explain' assassination claims: UK
Israel’s ambassador should be summoned to the British Foreign Office to answer allegations of his country’s involvement in the assassination of a Hamas commander by a hit squad using fake British and European passports, a senior MP demanded today.
Two Britons whose passports were apparently used by the killers, have expressed shock at being caught up in the affair after they were named among 11 suspects identified by Dubai police.
Hamas has pointed the finger at Israel, blaming Mossad – the country’s secret service – for carrying out last month’s hit on Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
And Dubai’s police chief Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said it was possible that “leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill” the Hamas man.
The UK's former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell, who is also a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the British government should demand an urgent explanation.
“If the Israeli government was party to behaviour of this kind it would be a serious violation of trust between nations,” he said.
“If legitimate British passport holders were put at risk it would be a disgrace. Given the current speculation, the Israeli government has some explaining to do and the ambassador should be summoned to the Foreign Office to do so in double-quick time.”
His call came after Tory MP Hugo Swire, chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council, demanded a “full investigation”.
The British Foreign Office has said the six British passports involved were “fraudulent” and officials in Dublin said they had “issued no passports” in the names of the three people using Irish identities.
It is thought that while details like the names, numbers and dates of birth on the suspect passports matched the originals, the photographs and signatures differed.
