Report claims that Dahlan supplied Gaddafi with Israeli weapons

A report in the Algerian newspaper Al-Shuruq claims that the former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan was one of a number of Palestinians “involved in a deal to supply weapons from Israel to Muammar Gaddafi”. The secret deal was facilitated using a ship which sailed from Greece. The source for the information was Libyan dissident Omar El-Khadraoui.

In a communiqué to Al-Shururq from the Libya-Tunisia border on Sunday, El-Khadraoui said, “The former leader of the Fatah movement, Muhammad Dahlan, and someone known as ‘Muhammad Rashid’, a Kurd from Iraq whose real name is Khalid Salam and who used to be an advisor to the late Yasser Arafat, are behind a deal to supply internationally proscribed weapons to Colonel Gaddafi, who used them to shell civilians in Misrata in western Libya.”

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Mr. El-Khadraoui, who is part of the revolutionary political leadership in Libya, confirmed that the ‘Muhammad Rashid’ accompanied the ship carrying the Israeli weapons from Greece to the port of Tripoli; he added that the revolutionaries in Misrata were able to loot some of the shipment. Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast footage of these weapons, which included cluster bombs marked with the Star of David, an emblem of Israel and the Jews.

“Colonel Gaddafi expresses antipathy toward Israel but in reality the closest of links bind him to Israel via Muhammad Dahlan, the former Minister of Security for the Palestinian Authority,” said El-Khadraoui.

Dahlan is accused by Hamas and many from within Fatah itself, of being involved in unsavoury dealings which, claims El-Khadraoui, include “a mafia network to smuggle weapons from Israeli companies, including weapons which are proscribed internationally”.