U.A.E. Seeks EU Help in Assassination Probe

A very interesting article by the NY times in reference to the Assassination of Hamas Gun runner and other wise bad guy.

* The Wall Street Journal

* MIDDLE EAST NEWS
* FEBRUARY 22, 2010, 1:25 A.M. ET

U.A.E. Seeks EU Help in Assassination Probe

By NOUR MALAS

DUBAI—The United Arab Emirates government said Sunday it would seek continued cooperation with European nations whose passports were involved in the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai, in the first federal government response since the crime took place last month.

"The U.A.E. is deeply concerned by the fact that passports of close allies, whose nationals currently enjoy preferential visa waivers, were illegally used to commit this crime," the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.
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* WSJ.com/Mideast: News, video, graphics

The U.A.E's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, met with European Union ambassadors to brief them on developments in the case of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh's assassination, according to the statement.

Mr. Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas's military wing, was found dead on Jan. 20 in a hotel room in Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the U.A.E.

"The abuse of passports poses a global threat, affecting both countries' national security as well as the personal security of travelers," U.A.E. foreign minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in the statement.

Dubai police officials last Monday said they were seeking 10 men and one woman in connection with Mabhouh's killing, and identified six as British passport holders, three as Irish citizens, including the woman, one as German and one as French.

International police agency Interpol last Thursday issued arrest notices, or Red Notices, for the 11 suspects, saying they have been charged by U.A.E. authorities with coordinating and committing the murder.

Dubai's police chief in the local press blamed Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, for killing and insisted that the passports used in the operation are not fake.

"It is 99%, if not 100%, that Mossad is standing behind the murder," Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim told The National, an English-language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E capital. Israel on Friday dismissed as "baseless" calls for the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, to be arrested in connection with the murder.

Write to Nour Malas at nour.malas@dowjones.com