Israel Matzav: Britain insisting on public commitment from Lieberman as part of sending new diplomat

Britain insisting on public commitment from Lieberman as part of sending new diplomat

According to London's Daily Independent, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband (pictured) is insisting on a public commitment from Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Israel will never again use British citizens' official documents as a condition for allowing Israel to replace the diplomat who was expelled from the UK last week. The diplomat is widely believed to have been the Mossad's liaison in London.

The Israeli government has shown no signs so far that it will acquiesce in Mr Miliband's demand that it pledge that "the state of Israel would never be party to the misuse of British passports in such a way". Such a declaration would be tantamount to an admission of Israel's guilt in the killing of Mr Mabhouh, something it denies. Mr Lieberman said: "There is no proof of Israeli involvement in this affair."

However, the Israeli government has also indicated that it will not retaliate by expelling a British diplomat. Officials privately acknowledge that the removal of the Mossad official, although damaging for relations between the two countries, will not impact too severely on the Israeli intelligence agency's work in the UK.

If that last sentence is true, I would consider not complying and not sending a new diplomat. Israel certainly cannot be in the position of admitting to Mabhouh's liquidation and a lack of intelligence cooperation would hurt Britain at least as much as it would hurt Israel. I also have a sense that were it not for all the problems with the US right now, this would not be happening. The corollary of that statement is that when (if) our problems with the US blow over, the passport issues will die down too. But we may have a few more blows to absorb on the passports from other countries first.

How did this happen? I wonder if anyone realized how good Dubai's tracking system was when they planned this operation.

Israel Matzav: Britain insisting on public commitment from Lieberman as part of sending new diplomat