Mabhouh's right-hand man suggests Arab security forces were behind hit, confirms boss smuggled arms

The right-hand man of assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh claimed that the security forces of an Arab country were behind the hit in Dubai.

Speaking on Hamas' Al-Aqsa radio in Gaza, the aide, Damascus-based Mohammed Nassar, said Dubai police were holding three Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killing.

He said Mabhouh had been under close surveillance by security forces of an Arab country and that the assassination plan was carried out earlier than expected because Mabhouh had "dangerous" information that would have implicated that security force.

According to Nasser, Mabhouh had proof that an Arab security force was focusing its efforts on carrying out a strike against Islamic resistance. He said that force was hounding Mabhouh day and night, that he was also to have been killed and regretted not having died a martyr's death.

Nasser said Mabhouh had called him before leaving Syria for Dubai and told him he felt "an army was persecuting me."

According to an interview transcript released yesterday, Nasser also said Mabhouh had supplied money and arms to "the resistance." The statement confirmed claims by Israeli defense officials who have alleged that Mabhouh played a role in smuggling weapons from Iran to Gaza. Nassar did not reveal specifics about Mabhouh's dealings, but said that his boss never stopped thinking about how to fight the occupation by supplying the Palestinian fighters with quality weapons.

"He participated with me in searching for weapons," Nassar said, according to the transcript.

Nassar claimed that Arab spies helped the Mossad track Mabhouh, but provided no details or evidence. He said he believed those spies were sent either by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, or by the intelligence service of one of Israel's Arab neighbors.

Nasser, who is the liaison between Hamas' military and political wings and communicates extensively with the Iranians for Hamas, worked closely with Mabhouh and has been called his deputy.

His statements confirmed theories that surfaced immediately after Mabhouh's January 19th assassination that not only Israel was interested seeing Mabhouh dead, so were Arab espionage agencies from Jordan and Egypt.

About 10 days after the killing, Haaretz reported that a Hamas source had said that the group did not discount the possibility that an Arab country was behind the hit. However, Hamas itself categorically rejected the claim, saying that it was a "Zionist" conspiracy. Now, Nasser himself has made the same claim.