TEL AVIV – Intelligence agencies in several Arab states suspect the Turkish regime may attempt an assassination campaign against those affiliated with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s archenemy Fethullah Gulen (pictured) as well as other opposition figures that Erdogan believes may have been involved in last month’s failed coup attempt, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem.
Several Middle Eastern and North African countries have beefed up security around institutions associated with Gulen, who has been accused by Erdogan’s regime of plotting the failed coup, he said.
The official added that it is still unclear whether Gulen’s lawyers relied on concrete information when they said the Pennsylvania-based cleric and political leader risks being assassinated.
“We’re very concerned about his safety,” Reid Weingarten, a member of Gülen’s legal team, stated at a press conference last Friday.
The UAE and Egyptian counterintelligence agencies have been bracing for anonymous attacks on Gulen’s loyalists across the Arab world, coordinated behind the scenes by Turkish intelligence, and are expecting attempts on the cleric’s life, the official said.
He also said that Palestinian official Mohammed Dahlan, a close adviser to the heir to the UAE throne, Mohammed Bin Zayed, has disrupted his schedule after he was accused by the Turks of being instrumental in staging and financing the coup.
Two days after the failed coup, Breitbart Jerusalem reported that Erdogan loyalists in Turkey had accused Dahlan, as well as Egypt and the UAE, of aiding the coup plot, supposedly because of their opposition to the Turkish president’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
The UAE foreign minister denied the allegations and said they were propagated by pro-Muslim Brotherhood media outlets.
Meanwhile, Turkey told the United States that the relationship between the two countries may suffer if Washington continues to ignore Ankara’s request to extradite Gulen.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.