Israeli foreign minister sidesteps questions about assassination of Hamas official

Israeli FM sidesteps questions on Hamas killing

BRUSSELS — Israel’s foreign minister sidestepped questions at EU headquarters Monday about his country’s alleged role in last week’s assassination of a top Palestinian Hamas operative, officials said.

Avigdor Lieberman also avoided discussing the falsified European Union passports believed to have been used by the killers, despite pressure for answers in one-on-one meetings with EU foreign ministers and the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton.

“There’s not been an acknowledgment on these issues,” Ashton said. She planned also to have dinner Monday with Lieberman.

The Jan. 20 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury Dubai hotel has widely been blamed on Israel’s Mossad spy agency, and investigators on several continents are examining the use of the bogus EU passports and credit cards linked to U.S.-based banks.

Israel had linked al-Mabhouh to arms smuggling into Gaza and the slaying of two Israeli soldiers.

The EU said in a statement that the use of false passports from several EU nations was “profoundly disturbing.”

The British government said Monday eight forged U.K. passports were used — two more than previously thought — bringing to 15 the total number of false EU passports allegedly tied to killing. Those also include five Irish passports, one French and one German.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he had met his Israeli counterpart in Brussels on Monday and stressed “the need for Britain and Israel to cooperate,” but said Lieberman “had no information to give me.”

Britain’s Serious and Organized Crime Agency or SOCA is investigating how the identities of British citizens were stolen. Britain’s Foreign Office declined to name those whose passports were used.

In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said “nothing positive” comes of such killings. With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visiting the French capital on Monday, Sarkozy also said France could not accept such “executions.”

Some officials in Brussels spoke of a deterioration in EU-Israeli relations, but the bloc’s statement Monday said only that Mabhouh’s killing was not “conducive to peace and stability” in the Middle East.

The EU also welcomed the fact that Dubai has begun an investigation.

Bilateral relations between the EU and Israel are already touchy, fed by a sense in many EU capitals that Israel is not doing enough for the Middle East peace process.