Dubai: Israeli officials rebuffed calls to arrest its top spy as pressure mounted on the country to cooperate in investigations on the assassination of a top Hamas commander in Dubai last month.
"The Dubai police have provided no incriminating proof," a senior official told AFP, asking not to be identified.
Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on Thursday he wanted Mossad chief Meir Dagan to be arrested if the agency is behind last month's killing of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, a top commander of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza.
Chief resigned
Following a previous failed Mossad operation, the spy agency's then-chief Danny Yatom resigned in 1997 after Mossad agents were caught trying to kill the now Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al in Amman.
Meanwhile, Britain on Friday denied suggestions that it knew about the Al Mabhouh killing in advance and that fake British passports would be used.
The Foreign Office issued a "strong rebuttal" of a story in the Daily Mail, which quoted an unnamed member of Israel's Mossad spy agency as saying London was tipped off hours before the killing.
Interpol issued 11 arrest warrants for the assassins at the request of Dubai authorities after Dubai Police showed footage of the assassins' movements prior to Al Mabhouh's killing.
Victor Ostrovsky, former Mossad agent, told the Los Angeles Times that the fallout from the operation could cause Israel more harm than Al Mabhouh could have "in a lifetime".
The governments of the UK, Ireland, France and Germany summoned Israel's ambassadors to demand full cooperation in inquiries on the use of forged passports in the operation.
With additional inputs from AFP
