“The Dubai assassination is an act of state terrorism on the part of Israel,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a report by state-run Press TV.
“Israel’s existence is itself based on terrorist activities,” he said, and described the Palestinian militant’s death in his hotel room in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on January 20 as an “embarrassment for Europe.”
GCC Secretary General Abdel Rahim al-Attiya urged European Union countries to cooperate with the UAE probe into the killing “to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice and prevent the repeat of such a terrorist act.”
Attiya avoided blaming Israel for the militant’s death, instead describing it as the work of an “organised criminal group.”
Dubai has accused Israel of sending agents from its Mossad secret service to murder Mahmud al-Mabhuh, who was found dead in a hotel room in the emirate.
Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said last week that he was “99 if not 100” percent sure that the Israeli intelligence service was behind the killing.
Israel has shrugged off accusations of its involvement, and on Tuesday rejected Arab Israeli calls for an open debate on the assassination, even as opposition leader Tzipi Livni defended targeting “terrorists.”
“I don’t expect the whole world to cheer when terrorists get killed, but at least that they refrain from criticising” such actions, the head of Israel’s centrist Kadima party — herself a former Mossad agent — said in Jerusalem.
“It’s immoral to compare terrorists with those who fight them,” added the 51-year-old who left the service when she married.
After Mabhuh’s death, Dubai police released the names and pictures of 11 suspects who entered the UAE on European passports — six from Britain, three from Ireland, one from Germany and one from France.
The Dubai authorities subsequently revealed that another two Irish passports had been used by members of the suspected hit squad.
All the passports appear to have been falsified or stolen, as they belonged to what appear to be ordinary citizens shocked to learn they had been linked to the case.
Ireland and Britain are now checking reports that four further passports issued to their citizens were used by Israeli suspects.
The Irish foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was examining media reports in Dubai that another two Irish passports were carried by the suspected killers, taking the total number to seven.
Britain said on Monday it was investigating reports that another two British passports were used in addition to the six already known about.
