'Mossad doesn't accept losers'

Dubai police chief Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim was eager to comment Sunday on the recent shakeup in the Mossad's leadership.

In an interview with the Emirati newspaper Gulf News which was cited by Army Radio, Tamim said that Meir Dagan was pressed to leave his job as Mossad chief because "the Mossad certainly does not accept losers."

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Tamim was referring to the suspected Mossad hit of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and the subsequent international fallout generated by the use of stolen identities and forged passports by the alleged members of the assassination team.

Meir Dagan’s tenure as head of the Mossad is likely to end in the coming months, reportedly in wake of the international criticism that Israel suffered following the January assassination of Hamas archterrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Dagan, a former IDF general, was appointed head of the Mossad in 2002 by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon. During his eight-year tenure, the Mossad has been attributed with assassinating Hizbullah’s military chief in Damascus, a top Syrian general in Tartus as well as a number of top Iranian nuclear scientists.

While according to the Channel 2 report Dagan asked for an extension, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Saturday night saying that Dagan never requested an extension. "The prime minister decided last year to extend the head of the Mossad's tenure by a year. Since then no additional decision has been made," the statement said.

When Sharon appointed him to the post, Dagan decided to focus the Mossad’s work on stopping Iran’s nuclear program as well as acting against global terrorism. He has been credited with restoring the Mossad’s relevance to the global war on terrorism and, according to foreign reports, the Mossad has in recent years succeeded in sabotaging and thereby delaying Iran’s nuclear program.

The decision to end Dagan’s tenure was reported first Friday night on Channel 2 News, which also claimed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu planned to appoint his successor from within the Mossad’s ranks.