Is Israel behind the assassination of Hamas leader in Dubai?

Tamim

On the eve of the Dubai World Cup, a recent high-profile assassination in Dubai is the talk of the town, while the trial of the assassination of a former Russian commander on Dubai World Cup day last year is underway.  

The big question these days: Did Israel sanction the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai on Jan. 20? Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the Dubai police chief, thinks maybe, according to published reports. Mahmoud al Mabhouh, accused in the past by Israel as a weapons smuggler between Iran and Gaza, was found dead in a Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20, and Lt. Gen. Tamin has implied that the assassination may have been the work of Mossad — the Israeli intelligence agency.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to assassinate [Mahmoud] al Mabhouh in Dubai. We will issue an arrest warrant against him.” — Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim to The National 

Lt. Gen. Tamim has no qualms about taking on high-ranking foreign leaders in the press. After Chechen Sulim Yamadayev, a one-time Russian batallion commander and an opponent of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, was assassinated in Dubai last Dubai World Cup day, Lt. Gen. Tamim was unequivocal in his assertions that Mr. Kadyrov’s right-hand man, Adam Delimkhanov, was the mastermind behind it. In fact, he had Mr. Delimkhanov, at the time a member of the Russian government, placed on an Interpol wanted list and tried to have him extradited to Dubai to stand trial. Recently at the Yamadayev trial, a Dubai policeman testified that an Iranian national associated with the Kadyrov stable in Dubai had implicated Mr. Delimkhanov.