A leading Israeli daily, Haaretz, reports that Turkmenistan has rejected the credentials of a former Mossad agent as Israel's ambassador to the central Asian republic. Reuven Dinal, a former head of the Mossad bureau in Moscow, was expelled from Russia in 1996 following espionage allegations. The appointment of Israel's first ambassador to Turkmenistan, a huge exporter of natural gas, was always going to be fraught with problems as the mainly Muslim republic shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

According to the Jerusalem Post there is unease within the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the decision to appoint Dinal because he is a close friend of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In the current political climate, Lieberman's choice of a former Mossad agent as an ambassador of Israel raises doubts about his judgement.