Rudd defied advice on UN vote on passport saga

The government last year expelled a senior Israeli diplomat from Canberra after it emerged the spies had used four faked Australian passports to enter Dubai to kill senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Just days after the story broke, Australia abstained from a United Nations vote demanding Israel and Palestine investigate claims in the so-called Goldstone Report that war crimes were committed during the 2008-09 Gaza assault.

Then-prime minister Kevin Rudd said at the time that Australia's failure to vote against the move had nothing to do with tensions incited by the passport scandal."The Australian government always reviews UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on their merits," Mr Rudd said at the time.

But a new cable from the US embassy in Canberra -- leaked to the Wikileaks website and published today -- suggests otherwise.

The confidential cable dated February 25, 2010 -- the day the passports story first broke -- shows the embassy believed Australia would vote against the resolution despite its anger. "The recent revelations that suspected Mossad agents used fake Australian passports to enter Dubai and kill a Hamas commander have made this decision more complicated," the cable notes.

The cable quotes senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) official Joel McGregor as saying Australian officials were "furious" all the way up the chain of command. "In the wake of the revelations from Dubai, the government is in no hurry to reassure Israel of its support."  But Mr McGregor said the government was highly unlikely to reverse an earlier no vote on the Goldstone Report.

"He believes the Palestinian resolution is a blatant attempt to keep the report alive, and said it would be overly confrontational for Australia to reverse its previous decision," the cable says. DFAT would "recommend that Australia vote 'no' on the resolution", the cable says. "McGregor feels strongly that Australia will ultimately support the US position but given the current atmosphere nothing is certain."

The cable carries the name of current US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich. Comment was being sought from DFAT.