Hamas leader's killing an act of terror: UAE

The murder of a senior Hamas leader in Dubai is an act of cross-border terrorism that bore the hallmarks of Israel and its intelligence apparatus, a top United Arab Emirates official has said.

"We believe that this action represents a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates according to international law and international resolutions that prohibit others to commit terrorist acts in the territory of a sovereign state," said Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Ghurair, speaker of the Federal National Council of the UAE.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel room on January 20, hours after entering the country.

The killing has widely been blamed on the Israeli secret service Mossad, although Israel has not claimed responsibility for the murder.

Addressing the 16th meeting of the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union, which began in Cairo on Tuesday, Ghurair called upon the AIPU to issue a resolution condemning the terrorist attack and express its solidarity with the UAE in bringing the perpetrators of this criminal act to justice.

He also reiterated the UAE's stance on Arab issues and called for reconciliation among the Palestinian factions.

Ghurair also stressed the right of the Arab countries to pursue nuclear programs for peaceful purposes and called for resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through peaceful means and not to drag the region into new military adventures.

The speaker also urged Iran to end the continuing occupation of UAE's three islands -- the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa -- peacefully or through the International Court of Justice.

Meanwhile, Dubai authorities have asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the links between suspects in the murder of the Hamas leader Mabhouh and their American-issued payment cards, a newspaper report here has said.

Quoting an FBI source, Abu Dhabi's The National said that the investigation would seek to discover the source of the funds used in the January 19 assassination of Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel, particularly to establish if there is a link to Israel or its intelligence agency Mossad.

Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms, according to the Dubai police.