ABU DHABI, March 14 (NNN-KUNA) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) re-affirmed on Saturday its determination to spare no stone unturned in the efforts to unravel all circumstances that surrounded the recent assassination of a leading member of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas on its territories.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nuhayyan, in response to a question by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) at a news conference, said the UAE could not and would not be lenient in the efforts to track down the culprits who carried out the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh at a hotel in Dubai.

The UAE has recently gotten support of member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at a ministerial meeting after the Arab League declared back-up for Abu Dhabi in its investigations and contacts to apprehend the assassins.

Sheikh Abdullah, who was speaking at a news conference along with the visiting Cypriot foreign minister, Markos Kyprianou, pledged that Abu Dhabi would exert further effective efforts to detain “these persons and bring them to justice.”

The UAE is also sending an explicit message “to those behind the crime, whoever they may be, that it is very much committed to the protection of its territories,” Sheikh Abdullah said.

“We do not view this crime as a crime that has taken place on the UAE territories thus constituting a breach of our territories but also a violation of the nationality cards and passports of the relevant European states and Australia,” he said alluding to a group of suspects who used fake passports to infiltrate into the Gulf state and assassinate Al-Mabhouh, also known as the founder of the military wing of Hamas.

The assassination was reportedly carried out by the Israeli intelligence, the Mossad.
On the UAE ties with Iran, Sheikh Abdullah said the country enjoys good and improving trade ties with Tehran despite its occupation of the three UAE islands, Abu Moussa, Greater and Lesser Tonbs, adding that Abu Dhabi hoped that the Iranians would work out an accord with the international community on the nuclear file.

The UAE will respect any sanctions that may be imposed by the UN Security Council on Iran, as any other member state of the Security Council, however it favors seeing a solution before reaching that phase, he said.

On the Middle East, the minister said Abu Dhabi had addressed a clear message to “our friends the Americans that there is a need that Israel scrap settlement plans and abide by (relevant) international resolutions.

” The US should appreciate the significant Arab support for the peace initiative “which we hope will lead to reclaiming the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people with the establishment of their state with the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital.”
For his part, Kyprioano denounced usage of European states passports in the assassination of Al-Mabhouh noting this should warrant legal action against the culprits who used them.

The minister added that he briefed the UAE minister about current negotiations regarding the Cypriot issue, and that his visit to the country was aimed at promoting the enhancement of the bilateral ties between Abu Dhabi and Nicosia.

He rejected Israel’s declaration of a plan to build new settlements in East Jerusalem adding that such a scheme would undermine the peace efforts in the region.

He affirmed his country’s support for establishing an independent Palestinian state and resumption of the negotiations for peace in the Middle East. — NNN-KUNA

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