Brussels, February 22: EU foreign ministers strongly condemned Monday the misuse of European passports by alleged Mossad assassins of a Hamas commander in Dubai, as their Israeli counterpart faced tough questioning in Brussels.
“We strongly condemn the use of fraudulent EU member states’ passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens’ identities,” the foreign ministers said in a statement drawn up during a meeting in Brussels.
“We are extremely concerned that European passports… can be used in a different manner for a different purpose,” Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.
Extremist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was to meet Moratinos and other European foreign ministers during the day, over Tel Aviv’s connection with the use of British, Irish, French and German passports by the murderers of Hamas officer Mahmud al-Mabhuh in January.
While the EU foreign ministers were not talking about Mossad by name, it was clear that the spotlight was on Israel’s notorious secret service, which has used fake passports in previous operations.
Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Saturday that he foresaw no crisis in relations with Europe over the affair.
Britain, Ireland, France and Germany last week called in Israeli envoys for talks at their foreign ministries after passports from those countries were implicated in the assassination.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who was to meet Lieberman Monday, called on the Israelis to cooperate “fully” in investigating the incident.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said Monday the culprits must be punished, stressing that such political assassinations “have no place in the 21st century.”
Mabhuh, a founder of Hamas’ armed wing, was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai on January 20.
Dubai police, accusing Mossad, released the names and photos of 11 suspects who entered the United Arab Emirates on European passports — six from Britain, three from Ireland, one from Germany and one from France.
The passports mainly belonged to people with dual nationality living in Israel who were shocked to learn of their being linked to the case.
“I think it is very important now that we fully support the investigation ongoing in Dubai, said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. “Misuse of European passports is not to be tolerated.”
Lieberman was to meet Moratinos, Miliband, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton among others.
Ashton’s spokesman Lutz Guellner said she “shares the concern over fraudulent use of passports.”
The row over the Hamas killing cones as Europeans seek to encourage the resumption of Middle East peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The foreign ministers of France and Spain said Monday that Europe would push for a tight timetable for a final round of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
In a joint editorial published in the daily Le Monde, France’s Bernard Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart Moratinos said the talks should lead to the recognition of a Palestinian state.
—Agencies