UK demands Israeli cooperation in passport probe

Britain’s foreign secretary has urged full Israeli cooperation with an official international probe into the assassination of a top Hamas official in the UAE.

“I set out the seriousness of the issue to Britain and the need for Britain and Israel to cooperate, and the importance of the investigation the prime minister has announced and the importance we attach to Israeli cooperation with that investigation,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday after a 45-minute meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Brussels.

The terrorists that killed Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhouh had used fake British, Irish, French, and German passports, mainly duplicated from passports of Europeans with dual nationality that were living in Israel.

Miliband urged Israel to cooperate in a “transparent and clear” way, noting that “it is very important that people know that we continue to take this issue very seriously indeed.”

Last month, Miliband promised the European Union will get to the bottom of the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

This came soon after the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned the use of European passports by al-Mabhouh’s assassins. They described the terror operation as disturbing and against peace and stability in the region.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who also attended the meeting, denied Tel Aviv’s link to the terror act. Dubai’s police chief, however, said on Saturday that new evidence confirms Israel’s involvement in al-Mabhouh’s murder.