Infrastructure Minister Silvan Shalom will lead an Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, to attend a conference focused on renewable energy, his spokesman confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.Palestine Today says that Uzi Landau left Dubai only an hour or two before Mabhouh was killed, and it suspects that this is not a coincidence. Therefore, it believes, Israel is planning another killing in Dubai very soon.
Shalom will attend the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Fourth Assembly, held at the St. Regis Hotel on Saadiyat Island from January 18 to 19, as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
He follows in the footsteps of then-energy and water minister Uzi Landau, who traveled to a similar Abu Dhabi conference on January 16, 2010, and became the first minister to visit the United Arab Emirates. Israeli is one of 123 member-states of IRENA, an intergovernmental organization focused on renewable energy development that is based in Abu Dhabi.
This is the first Israeli delegation visit to the UAE, with which Israel has no diplomatic ties, since the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 19, 2010.
While Israel never confirmed or denied involvement in the killing, the Dubai police chief afterward forbade all Israelis from entering the country, even those holding foreign passports.
(In fact, Landau returned to Israel two days before the Mabhouh killing.)
But this gives me the chance to ask again my question about the Dubai police investigation in the murder: where is the hotel footage of the hallway outside Mabhouh's room?