(JTA) — Australia will wait for the results of its own investigation over forged national passports before deciding whether to sanction Israel, its foreign minister said.
Stephen Smith said Wednesday that the British government will share its report released Tuesday with the Australian Federal Police.
The British investigation found that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency provided members of an assassination team with forged British passports in order to kill top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room in Dubai in January. Britain expelled a high-ranking Israeli diplomat on Tuesday.
"The AFP have been liaising with their British counterparts [and] they’ll take this report into account when they make and conclude their investigations," Smith said.
"We’re treating this matter very seriously. Israel understands that," he added.
Some 26 members of an assassination team widely speculated to have been Mossad agents used forged passports from Britain, Ireland, Australia and Germany to enter and leave Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in Mabhouh’s assassination.
Australian federal police officers recently visited Israel as part of its investigation. Smith would not speculate when the federal police would conclude its investigation.
