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Report: U.K. to formally link Israel to Dubai hit

Arab World Materials 23 March 2010 12:43 (UTC +04:00)
Britain is expected to formally link Israel to the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in a Dubai hotel room in January
Report: U.K. to formally link Israel to Dubai hit

Britain is expected to formally link Israel to the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in a Dubai hotel room in January, Israeli Haaretz reported Tuesday reffering to the British Telegraph.

Israeli Ambassador to London, Ron Proser, was summoned to the Foreign Office in London on Monday to be told that results of an inquiry into the murder of Mabhouh have determined for certain that British passports were cloned as part of the operation, the Telegraph reported.

Mabhouh was killed January in what Dubai police have said they are near certain was a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Police said the killers traveled to the Gulf Arab emirate using forged passports from the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.

According to the newspaper, there was growing speculation that "a senior Israeli diplomat would be expelled as a mark of the 'anger' within the Government that British passport holders had been put at risk as a result of the operation."

Prosor was also reportedly told that a ministerial statement will be made to Parliament in the coming days formally naming the Israeli security services as responsible for the cloning of up to 15 British passports as part of the Dubai operation.

The statement will not state definitively whether the Mossad was involved and will instead mention both them and the Military Intelligence Directorate.

But the Foreign Office made it clear to Prosor that the probe had determined for certain that the passports were cloned when British citizens passed through airports on their way into Israel, with officials taking them away for 'checks' which lasted around 20 minutes.

There was no immediate response from the embassy

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