Article content continued

He told the Ottawa Sun he learned about it from a Passport Canada employee with whom he had an affair. The passport officer, a member of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, had been investigating Mr. Azarbar and has since been suspended.

The murder of Mr. al-Mabhouh, a Hamas founder who procured weapons for the Iranian-backed Palestinian terror group, has been widely blamed on the Mossad’s assassination unit but Israel has never publicly confirmed it was responsible.

Canada has traditionally reacted angrily at being drawn into Israeli covert operations. The government recalled its ambassador to Israel in 1997 after two Mossad agents used fake Canadian passports during an attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan.

In the published portions of his interview, Mr. Azarbar did not explain why Canada would have agreed to assist one of the assassins, but Iran’s state-controlled press portrayed the allegations in the context of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s close relations with Israel.

“The Canadian government has said we had nothing to do with this, but it is a lie,” the Sun quoted Mr. Azarbar as saying. “The girl who was in charge of that file at Passport Canada with whom I had a relationship, she told me about it.”

Mr. Azarbar could not be reached for comment Friday. He is reportedly identified in Montreal police documents as an Iranian spy – an allegation he denies. He has been involved in dozens of businesses, one of which does construction work in Venezuela.