Australia not expelling Israeli diplomats, yet
THE Rudd Government will not consider following Britain in expelling any Israeli diplomats until the Australian Federal Police (AFP) concludes its report into the alleged forgery of Australian passports.
NAOMI LEVIN
Speaking to ABC radio on Wednesday afternoon, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there were no immediate plans to evict Israeli embassy staff, or take any other action.
“It is very important to take this step-by-step,” Smith said.
The minister suggested the AFP report would not be completed for at least a fortnight considering the involvement of forged Australian passports in the Dubai assassination of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was discovered two weeks after the revelation British documentation had been used in the same incident.
“We have an investigation underfoot and we’ll wait for the results of that investigation.”
A spokesperson from the Israeli Embassy in Canberra said they too were awaiting the results of the AFP investigation before commenting any further.
Early Wednesday morning, Australian time, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that a member of the Israeli Embassy in Britain — reported to be a London-based Mossad representative — had been expelled.
In addition, Miliband issued Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with a letter “seeking a formal assurance from him that in the future the State of Israel would never be party to the misuse of British passports in such a way”.
Britain also updated its travel advice for visitors to Israel to “make clear the potential risk, and to set out the steps they can take to minimise that risk”, Miliband said.
In a speech to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary said his country’s investigation into the passport fraud pointed to Israel’s culpability.
“[The Serious Organised Crime Agency] were drawn to the conclusion that the passports used were copied from genuine British passports when handed over for inspection to individuals linked to Israel, either in Israel or in other countries. They found no link to any other country,” Miliband said.
“Given that this was a very sophisticated operation in which high quality forgeries were made, the Government judges it is highly likely that the forgeries were made by a state intelligence service.”
The passports of four Australians living in Israel were revealed by Dubai police to have links to al-Mabhouh January assassination. Passports from other countries, including the UK, Ireland, France and Germany, were also implicated.‚Ä®Foreign Minister Smith reiterated that the passport holders were not involved in any way except as “innocent victims”.