Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was on active duty during the assassination of senior PLO official Mamoun Meraish in Greece in the 1980s when she worked for Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, a British press report said on Sunday.

Livni was a Paris agent for Mossad when Meraish was shot dead by a hit squad in Athens on August 21, 1983, according to the Sunday Times. Two men on a motorcycle drew alongside Meraish’s car and opened fire. Livni was not directly involved, but her role remains a secret, the paper added.

Livni joined Israel’s intelligence agency in 1980 after leaving the Israeli army with the rank of lieutenant. She was based in Paris, from which she traveled across Europe in pursuit of alleged Arab terrorists, the paper said.

In 1984, Livni resigned from the Mossad and went back to Israel to study law, citing pressures of the job.

Today, the married mother of two is seen as the strongest candidate to lead the Kadima party as embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces trial on corruption charges.

Although Livni enjoys high public approval ratings, she still trails right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu in polls as a potential premier.

Linvi’s parents were both implicated in terrorist crimes in the 1940s, the paper reports.

Her mother, Sarah, was a leader in the militant Zionist group Irgun. In an interview she gave before her death, Sarah said she took part in a train robbery while disguised as a pregnant woman and was involved in blowing up another train.

Linvi’s father, Eitan, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for attacking a British military base. He later escaped, the Times said.

Unlike her parents, Livni supports the creation of a Palestinian state, but ongoing talks have failed to make headway.

(AlArabiya.net)