Israel-India relations, which have been nurtured over the years, could be threatened because of media allegations that Indian UNIFIL troops took bribes from Hizbollah in the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers in the Mount Dov region last October, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post Thursday night.
The sources said unconfirmed reports in Ma'ariv were placing strains on ties between the two countries.
According to the sources, India is expected to comment on the issue to Israel after the conclusion of next week's summit meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
"The Indians are taking these reports extremely seriously and there could well be repercussions in terms of the ties that have been so carefully built up between Israel and India," said one of the sources.
"There are even some who think that these rumors may have been spread by those who might be construed as having a vested interest in undermining the strategic relations between India and Israel," the source said.
An Israeli diplomatic official said that criticism of the Indian unit leveled by Israeli ministers and high-level defense officials, has been widely quoted in the Indian press and "has caused a great deal of tension in our relations with that country."
The official was quoted as saying that Hizbollah television on Thursday reported that the Indian soldiers had been bribed to allow the kidnapping.
An official at the Indian embassy said that Hizbollah’s comments should be taken with a grain of salt, since it is obviously interested in aggravating relations between India and Israel, according to the Israeli paper.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon rejected Thursday the allegations that Lebanese Hizbollah fighters bribed troops of its Indian contingent to allow them to snatch three Israeli soldiers, said AFP.
UNIFIL spokesman Timour Goksel said, "any unproven allegations are a slander and an insult.
"It is very easy to cast doubt on people and doubt their integrity by merely accusing them of maybe this and maybe that. This is nonsense and very cheap and I reject it completely."
Maariv said Israeli investigators had questioned soldiers of the contingent in India, including some who had negotiated the payment with Hizbollah. It added that senior officers of the contingent and of UNIFIL were not thought to be involved.
The paper quoted "a senior source close to" hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as saying, "There is no doubt that what happened here will shake up the organization."
But Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Israeli army radio Thursday that he was unaware of Maariv's sources, adding: "We must be prudent, and verify what is the case."
Israel is furious with the UN because it refuses to hand over a videotape filmed by an Indian soldier of UNIFIL the day after Hizbollah seized the Israeli soldiers on October 7.
The tape shows the scene near the Israeli-held Shabaa Farms area where the kidnap took place, including vehicles used by Hizbollah and a number of Lebanese.
The UN, which only recently admitted the existence of the videotape in the face of Israeli requests for it, says Israel can only see an edited version with the faces of the Lebanese blurred out.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday ordered an internal inquiry into the "mishandling" of the Israeli request for the tape, said the UN news service.
Spokesman Fred Eckhard told the press at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday that the inquiry, to be conducted by UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph Connor, would also look into the subsequent handling of the tape and exchanges with the Israeli government.
"Mr. Connor has been asked to report to the Secretary-General as soon as possible," the spokesman said.
Explaining the motivation behind the probe, Eckhard said "frankly, the Organization was embarrassed, and its credibility was hurt, by what appears to be a mishandling of this event."
"The Secretary-General I think, as a manager, wants to have a review of the circumstances under which filming is done in peacekeeping missions and the way in which information is moved up the chain of command," he said.
But the United Nations stood firm in its refusal to give Israel an unedited version of the tape. "Our invitation to view an edited version of the tape is the secretary general's final offer," Eckhard stressed.
Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned Monday that the United Nations would be deemed to be "spying for the enemy" if it hands the videotape over to Israel.
The case has sparked new tension between Israel and the United Nations, which the Jewish state has long regarded as having an anti-Israeli bias.
"Definitely, it's not a good point in the relations between Israel and the UN," an Israeli diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Another diplomat pointed out that the dispute could undercut efforts by the United Nations to be "an honest broker" between conflicting parties in the Middle East.
Israel welcomed news of the internal UN inquiry but continued to insist that it be provided an unedited version of the tape.
A defense ministry statement said Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer Defense Minister will meet Anan in New York in 10 days, said Haaretz.
The two will discuss what the UN knows about the missing three soldiers held by the militant Hizbollah organization, an official told the paper - Albawaba.com
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