Overview
- UAE State Security Service, which on Monday posted names and photos of 27 suspects, said it broke up a cell linked to Iran’s Velayat-e Faqih and foiled planned terrorist and sabotage acts.
- Prosecutors charged the group with running a secret organisation, pledging loyalty to foreign entities, harming national unity, raising and transferring funds to suspicious groups abroad, and holding secret meetings inside and outside the country.
- Officials say members tried to recruit Emirati youth and spread allegiance to Velayat-e Faqih, a doctrine that places loyalty with Iran’s supreme leader.
- The decision to publish identities departs from usual Gulf secrecy and serves to warn Tehran while reassuring residents that security services are acting.
- Regional bodies and governments including the GCC, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt issued statements backing the UAE, and Iran had not publicly responded in the reports.