Thursday, February 18, 2010

Dubai Hamas killing pledge by UK foreign secretary

Britain is determined to "get to the bottom of" how fake UK passports were used by the alleged killers of a Hamas commander, the foreign secretary says.

David Miliband described the use of six British passports as an "outrage".

Dubai's police chief has said he is 99% sure of the involvement of Israeli agents in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death, but Israel says there is no proof.

Its UK ambassador said he was "unable to add additional information" after he met the UK diplomatic service's head.

Mr Miliband said he "hoped and expected" that Tel Aviv would co-operate fully with the investigation into the "outrage", which comes amid accusations that Israel's secret service, Mossad, was involved in the killing in Dubai on 20 January.

The meeting followed the announcement of an inquiry by Prime Minister Gordon Brown into the use of passports bearing the names of six British-Israelis who are not the men pictured.

Mr Miliband refused to reveal what was said in the 20-minute meeting between Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and Sir Peter Ricketts, the head of the UK's diplomatic service.

He said: "It's very very important that we don't make accusations until we know that they're well founded."

But Mr Miliband said the case was being taken "extremely seriously" and the integrity of the British system was "critical".

Mr Prosor told journalists after his meeting that it is "not the usual way to talk about what happens in those meetings".

The Irish Republic also called in Israeli ambassador Zion Evrony, who also insisted he knew nothing about the killing of the Hamas commander.

British Conservative leader David Cameron had called for Israel's ambassador to the UK to be asked "some pretty tough questions".

Meanwhile, shadow foreign secretary William Hague has urged the Foreign Office to confirm when it first knew about the fake passport claims.

UK diplomats said they had received details of the British passports a few hours before Dubai released details on Monday.

However Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "entirely possible" the government had been alerted to their use in January.

"There have been reports in the Gulf, including one in the Gulf News, right at the end of January, that the head of police in Dubai had contacted consulates and embassies for assistance with this investigation into the suspects," he said.

Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor on the Dubai murder

The BBC's Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen said if there was proof Israel had used British passports "for some nefarious uses of its Mossad service - as they have in the past with Canadian and New Zealand ones", then relations between the UK and Israel would be "in a crisis".

The Serious Organised Crime Agency has confirmed photographs and signatures on the passports used in Dubai do not match those on passports issued by the UK.

The men whose names appeared on the passports have dual British and Israeli citizenship.

They are Melvyn Adam Mildiner, Paul John Keeley, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Michael Lawrence Barney and Jonathan Lewis Graham. They all deny involvement in the killing.

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