Senior Israeli diplomats were led to believe that Adam Werritty was an official adviser to Britain's Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox when the pair attended a top-level conference that discussed sanctions against Iran.
Werritty organised a dinner during the Herzliya conference in Israel last February for politicians and senior officials, which was attended by the Defence Secretary and Matthew Gould, Britain's ambassador. But he did it without any British diplomats in the country being involved in the arrangements, it is claimed.
Israeli officials said they were under the impression that Werritty was a senior adviser to Fox and took part extensively in political discussions at Herzliya advocating a tough stance against Iran, a view he had arrived at, he said, after visiting the country.
Fox, in his address to the conference, also raised the need for further sanctions against the Tehran regime. An interim report produced by Ursula Brennan, the most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, revealed that Werritty's presence at a meeting between Fox and Gould, before the latter took up his post in Tel Aviv, was unauthorised.
An Israeli official present at the conference said: "No one had any reason to doubt that Adam Werritty was a senior adviser to Mr Fox. He was very much involved with Mr Fox's schedule, arranging things and it seemed like something he had done many times before."
