EU tones down condemnation of Dubai murder
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have condemned the use of EU passports by the killers of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, but using softer language than originally proposed.
Notably, the bloc refrained from making any criticism of Israel, widely assumed to be behind the operation, and language referring to the practice of "extra-judicial killing" was removed.
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
EU officials acknowledge the issue will present a hurdle to closer EU-Israeli relations in the future.
"The killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 20 January raises issues that are profoundly disturbing to the European Union," the ministers said in a statement.
"This was an action that cannot be conducive to peace and stability in the Middle East. The EU strongly condemns the fact that those involved in this action have used fraudulent EU member states' passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens' identities."
The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, explained that she would be meeting with Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Leiberman, for an informal dinner on Monday evening where she would raise the issue, as other EU ministers had earlier done in bilateral meetings with the minister.
However, she said that to condemn Israel was to presume the state is guilty before anything has been proved.
"We can't move from a position where some press reports say something happened to taking a postion [assuming they are correct]," she said. "But the member states remain extremely angry."
Earlier in the day, Irish foreign minister Michael Martin met with Mr Leiberman. "I articulated our grave concern over the use of our passports in Dubai and the degree to which we are concerned about the safety of our citizens."
He said Mr Lieberman had "indicated strongly that he had no further information."
It is understood that Mr Martin put it to his counterpart that the chief of the Dubai police had said he was "99 percent certain" the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, was behind the killing.
At which point, Mr Lieberman dismissed the suggestion as press speculation.
Mr Martin told reporters that he was glad the EU had now made a collective statement, rather than leaving it at the member state level. Last week, the European Commission had been adamant that the issue was not a matter of responsibility for the European Union.
"The fraudulent use of passports and credit cards is a concern for EU citizens collectively," he said. "[Those whose identities had been stolen] will automatically be put on terror lists and so on. If any of them had travelled over the weekend, they would have had enormous difficulties."
He said that his government had already received a complaint from a businessman who had received negative treatment in Dubai as a result: "This has a real effect on citizens."
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman also met with the UK foreign secretary, David Miliband, where the British minister stressed the importance of Israel co-operating with investigtions into the murder.
According to Mr Miliband, his Israeli counterpart responded that "he had no information at this stage."
Challenged by reporters in Brussels about the assassination, following a meeting with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, Mr Leiberman refused to answer any questions, but said: "I think you all watch too many James Bond movies."
One EU source described the final language of the ministers' communique as "bland." The original text reportedly made reference to "extra-judicial killing."
"It's been toned down a lot from where it was earlier and what some member states would have wanted. It's more symbolic, a show of solidarity among the member states than anyone telling anyone off. At the same time, there was no real opposition from the usual member states [that are more pro-Israel than the other ones], but this time Germany's one of the countries affected, so that makes things a bit different this time," the contact said.
Scanned copies of passports
The suspected killers of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh used passports from Ireland, France, Germany, and the UK. Initially 11 individuals were alleged to have been responsible for the murder, six Britons, three Irish, one French and one German, but the enquiry has now extended to 18 people, including two Palestinians.
Dublin has confirmed that two of the subsequent suspects also carried Irish passports.
The UK and France have said that the passports were fake. In the British case, the identities of six dual UK-Israeli citizens were stolen by the perpetrators. Authorities in London are investigating the possibility that the passport data were stolen when the individuals passed through Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
In the Irish case, the passports carried genuine passport numbers from the country's passport system, but were not genuine passports.
"But it's hard to say at this point whether they were counterfeit or just obtained in a fraudulent manner. All we have to go on are the scanned copies of the passports from the Dubai police," said one source close to the investigation.
The United Arab Emirates is currently considering tightening visa availability for EU citizens in the wake of the incident.