Mossad: Britain summons Israeli ambassador to meeting over Dubai killing

Britain has summoned Israel’s ambassador to a meeting at the Foreign Office to discuss the use of fake UK passports by suspected assassins of a top Hamas figure in Dubai, it emerged tonight.

The development marks the latest stage of the escalating fallout, which has seen the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) being brought in to investigate the use of the documents in the operation leading to the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

One Whitehall official told The Times: “The evidence so far makes very bad reading but until we can get all the facts about exactly what happened, we won’t be in a position to decide what action to take. We have to be clear about the facts before we slag people off.”

After Soca confirmed that it was holding its investigation tonight, the FCO said it had asked Israel's ambassador to a meeting. “Given the links to Israel of a number the British nationals affected, there will be a meeting between the FCO Permanent Under Secretary and the Israeli ambassador tomorrow,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Soca, an intelligence-led agency with law enforcement powers, is in touch with the UK Identity and Passport Service to clarify that the passports of six of the alleged assassins were based on genuine British documents.

Speaking on LBC radio today, Gordon Brown confirmed that he took the misuse of British identity documents very seriously and had ordered a full investigation which was now underway.

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