Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman refused on Monday to confirm or deny that Israel carried out the assassination of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 19. He suggested that the accusations against Israel stem from an anti-Israel bias among the Arab states. 

Lieberman' Irish counterpart, Michael Martin, asked him for clarifications about the assassins' use of forged Irish passports, when the two ministers met in Brussels. "There is no information that shows that Israel was involved in the matter,” Lieberman replied. 

"If someone had presented other information, beyond reports in the media, we would comment on it,” Lieberman added, “but since there is no such information, there is no need to comment on the matter.”

"There are many false accusations against Israel about all kinds of subjects and there is an Arab tendency to blame Israel for everything,” Lieberman went on. “In the Middle East, there are many internal struggles inside countries and bodies that are not as democratic as Israel.”

EU condemns use of fake passports
The foreign ministers of the European Union issued a statement Monday condemning the use of forged European passports in the assassination of al-Mabhouh, but refrained from mentioning Israel. “The EU strongly condemns the fact that those involved in this action used fraudulent EU member states' passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizen's identities," the statement said.

"We are extremely concerned that European passports... can be used in a different manner for a different purpose," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters. French President Nicolas Sarkozy "unreservedly condemned" the assassination, speaking at a press conference with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas according to news agency AFP.