A former Russian double agent living in Britain is in critical condition after suspected exposure to what police have called ‘an unknown substance’. In 1997, Israel’s Mossad tried to poison a Hamas leader
Poisoning a Hamas leader
The Mossad men posing as Canadian tourists targeted Khaled Meshaal, then head of the Hamas political bureau, by injecting a mysterious poison into his ear on a street in Jordan’s capital Amman. Meshaal slipped into coma but Jordanian police captured the attackers
Why Jordan was furious
Israel and Jordan had for many years been operating on covert projects, wrote Alan Cowell who was reporting from Jordan for the New York Times in 1997. So when Mossad’s head wanted to meet King Hussein suddenly, the king was not surprised. He assumed that they would be discussing a new peace plan
But Mossad head Danni Yatom had grimmer news to convey—an assassination mission gone awry on the streets of Amman. The king was furious because he was just informed of the plot and he felt he was “stabbed in the back”. The Israeli agent also wanted the King’s cooperation in freeing the jailed agents
A plan explodes
“Yatom’s pre-emptive disclosure and plea for help exploded in Israel’s hands: They brought Israel’s relationship with Jordan to its lowest point since the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91, ruptured the decades-old covert intelligence relationship,” adds Cowell
Israel provides the antidote
Only when Israel provided the full details of the attack did the king agree to help. Eventually, Israel had to provide the antidote and also release Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin