Dubai, Asharq Al-Awsat- Commenting on the assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai who the Hamas movement claims was killed by Mossad, the Commander of the Dubai Police Force, General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, warned both the Hamas movement and the Israeli Intelligence agency against working “behind our backs”
General Tamim said “Anybody who tries to work behind our backs [in Dubai] must watch his back, and this applies to all intelligence agencies in the world, whether this [individual] is affiliated to Hamas or Mossad or any other intelligence agency.”
In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Dubai Police Chief revealed that the nature of the activity that senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was undertaking in Dubai was strictly commercial, and has nothing to do with arms smuggling. Tamim described the information revealed by Israeli sources that claimed that al-Mabhouh was in Dubai to meet with Iranian officials as being absurd and untrue.
General Tamim told Asharq Al-Awsat “If al-Mabhouh wanted to meet with Iranians he could have met them in Syria, and this would have been easy for there is no difficulty in Iranians visiting Syria, and you know that their entry to Dubai is not this easy, or perhaps he could have visited Iran, so why does he meet with them in Dubai? Therefore this is a false claim and a lie.”
Israeli security sources claim that al-Mabhouh played a key role in the smuggling of Iranian weapons into the Gaza Strip however they refused to comment on accusations that Israel was responsible for his death.
General Tamim said that the investigation into the assassination is at full swing, although he clarified that no accusations will be made against anybody until the investigation is complete, adding that Mossad have not been ruled out of the investigation. The Dubai Police Chief said “I do not rule out any party that has a motive for killing al-Mabhouh…it may be Mossad” although he added “it may not be Mossad.”
Asked whether the perpetrators could have been part of the Israeli delegation led by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, who was visiting the UAE to participate in a conference on renewable energy, General Tamim said “I doubt it. Why would they come as part of a delegation that was being closely monitored when it was possible to enter [Dubai] using European passports?”
Hamas previously said that it was possible that Mossad agents entered Dubai in order to assassinate al-Mabhouh as part of the Israeli delegation led by Israeli Minister Uzi Landau who was visiting the UAE to attend an International Renewable Energy Agency [IRENA] conference.
General Tamim refused to reveal the nationalities of the suspects “until the investigation is complete” and he said that the Dubai Police Force has the courage to discover the truth and publicly reveal this.
The Dubai Police Chief said “things will go according to legal processes and we are waiting for the completion of the investigation.” General Tamim also called for an end to analysis and interpretation surrounding what happened “for everybody is thinking up a different scenario for what happened.”