[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Al Arabiya News reveals more information as the former Paleostinian Ambassador Atef Abu Bakr said that the reason behind the attempt to blow up an Israeli airliner in Heathrow airport in 1986 was in retaliation to Israelis previously hijacking a private plane carrying Abdullah al-Ahmar and other Syrian leaders on its way back from Libya.
Abu Bakr gave his version of events by saying that Tel Aviv thought that the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine (PFLP), Dr. George Habash, was on board the plane.
It released the hostages later on but the Syrians felt greatly humiliated
| And so they were. The Israeli targetting was off, but their execution was spot on, undeterred by the vaunted Arab fierceness in battle. |
and wanted to "restore their dignity." The Air Force Intelligence plotted an act of Dire Revenge and the Secretary-General of Fateh Revolutionary Council, Sabri al-Banna (also known as Abu Nidal) proposed to carry out the operation.
It was agreed that the Abu Nidal group would take responsibility for the operation whether it succeeded or failed.
| Spoiler: it failed. Was it then known that it was Abu Nidal that dunnit, or is the responsibility-taking only happening thirty years later? |
Ex-ambassador Abu Bakr believes that the operation failed because Nizar al-Hindawi leaked information about it and questions a relationship between al-Hindawi and the Mossad. He said that Nizar was a "multi-loyal person who worked with Syrians and others and even with the "enemy"... His father was a cook at the Jordanian embassy and was revealed as a Mossad agent."
Had Heathrow's operation succeeded, it would have lead to serious consequences between Damascus and Tel Aviv. It could have even caused an Israeli invasion of the Syrian capital, according to the former ambassafor.
| How fortunate for certain parties that it failed so abysmally. |
In his interview on Al Arabiya News Channel's "Political memoirs", Abu Bakr further revealed that one of the members in Fateh Revolutionary Council heard Abu Nidal saying: "We will accomplish a mission that will prompt an immediate reaction from the Israelis. They may even invade Damascus."
| Golly. Witnesses to the mortifying failure, increasing the mortification. A lovely thought, however belatedly thunk. |
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