Israel: Iran 'blocked' soldier-release deal

Israel has accused the Iranian government of paying around £25m (€37.3m) to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to block a deal that would have freed an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants who crossed from Gaza into Israel on June 25.

Israel’s UN ambassador Dan Gillerman told the UN Security Council “we heard news” earlier in the day that Tehran bribed Mashaal, “to sabotage the negotiations on the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit and prevent his release".

According to a report in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, the deal was foiled when an Iranian delegation met Mashaal in Damascus and offered him $50m (€39.6m) to block it.

Mashaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, accepted the money and ratcheted up his demands for Shalit’s release, the report said, deadlocking the negotiations.

“If this is the way in which Iran threatens humanitarian situations,” Gillerman said, “I shudder to think about the lengths to which Iran will go to undermine a diplomatic one.”