British passports were used in the assassination

Eight forged British passports were used in the assassination of a top Hamas agent in Dubai, it was revealed yesterday, as pressure mounted on Israel to co-operate with European investigations into the identity thefts.

Chris Bryant, Minister for Europe, said that police in Dubai had discovered details of another two fraudulent British passports used by suspected Mossad agents, in addition to the six already cloned from the passports of real-life Britons. The disclosure raises the prospect that there may be more British citizens whose identity was falsely used in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, should the latest documents also be found to have been copied from originals.

Mr Bryant addressed the Commons hours after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, emerged empty-handed from a showdown with his Israeli counterpart in Brussels, despite a united European front.

The 27 European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels stopped short of naming Israel but called the killing “an action which cannot be conducive to peace and stability in the Middle East” and condemned the use of European passports to carry out the crime. They said their passports were “among the most secure in the world”, amid fears that friendly Gulf States such as Dubai might consider imposing visa requirements for EU visitors in light of the death. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s bullish foreign minister, said there was “no proof” of Israel’s involvement in the killing. Mr Miliband avoided blaming Israel but said he had asked for co-operation with the British investigation.

Mr Bryant told the Commons that Mr Miliband “said that we stand ready to work with Israel on bringing stability and peace to the Middle East but that we can only do so on the basis of trust and mutual transparency. He underlined the deep discontent felt in this country, in this Government and in this House over this issue”.

Baroness Ashton, the EU high representative, said she intended to raise the passports issue with Mr Lieberman at a dinner meeting last night.

Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister, was also given short shrift by Mr Lieberman, who said he was unable to provide any information on the use of five Irish passports. Mr Martin said he had received no formal assurance from the minister that Israel had not been involved: “He indicated very strongly that he had no information whatsoever on the situation in Dubai.”

At least one Irish businessman in Dubai had been “very negatively treated” in the past few days “as there was a presumption that Ireland was involved [in the assassination] in some way”, he said.

Israeli media named the Hamas man suspected by Dubai police of complicity in the assassination as Nehru Massoud, an operative in Hamas’s attempt to smuggle Iranian weapons into Gaza. He is believed to have been in Dubai to meet Iranian sponsors to arrange an arms deal at the time of the killing on January 19.

The Hebrew daily, Maariv, quoted an unnamed Palestinian official as saying that Dubai had requested his extradition from Syria but authorities there had refused.

source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7036571.ece