TEL AVIV – Turkish officials suspect that Mohammed Dahlan, one-time Palestinian security boss and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ arch-rival, was involved in the failed attempt to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month, Arab and international reports now claim.
Two days after the failed coup, Breitbart Jerusalem quoted an Arab intelligence source saying that Turkey believes the Palestinian strongman played a role in the failed coup, adding that several Arab countries, Egypt and the UAE chief among them, are on Turkey’s blacklist.
Dahlan has served as a special adviser to the heir of the UAE throne, Muhammad Bin Zayed, and is a close associate of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Sisi. The source said that the Turks see Dahlan as a central figure in the anti-Muslim Brotherhood axis and believe he facilitated the attempt to overthrow the Brotherhood’s main regional sponsor, Erdogan.
Reports in recent days have seemed to indicate a similar concern in Ankara.
Following Dahlan’s alleged involvement in the coup, some have called for banning him from the Persian Gulf region.
The influential Kuwaiti cleric Abdullah Nufeissi told Turkish television that Dahlan’s fingerprints are all over events in Yemen, Libya, and Egypt.
“Even before his meddling in Turkey, he was running a hair-raisingly big budget, with which he agitated uprisings in the region,” he said. “He’s become a liability and a curse for us Gulf people.”
He said that he had information indicating that Dahlan channeled huge sums to Erdogan’s arch-enemy and alleged instigator of the failed coup, Fethullah Gulen, through a wealthy Palestinian-American businessman.
Meanwhile, the UAE’s foreign minister denounced accusations of Dahlan’s involvement in the coup and said the claims originated in pro-Muslim Brotherhood media outlets.
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