Arrests come after United Arab Emirates bore the brunt of Iranian attacks on Gulf neighbours.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 20 Apr 2026<\/span>20 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The United Arab Emirates has arrested members of an Iran-linked group that authorities accuse of plotting \u2018systematic terrorist and sabotage acts\u2019.<\/p>\n The State Security Service said in a statement posted on social media on Monday that it had detained members of a cell linked to Iran\u2019s Velayat-e Faqih (\u201cGuardianship of the Islamic Jurist\u201d) \u2013 a doctrine underlying Iran\u2019s 1979 Islamic Revolution and fealty to the supreme religious leader.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The move came amid the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, during which Tehran has targeted neighbours hosting United States military assets. The UAE has weathered more Iranian strikes than any other country \u2013 although most were intercepted.<\/p>\n The names and mugshots of the 27 alleged members of the unit were posted online, with authorities saying they have been\u00a0charged with \u201cestablishing and operating a secret organisation, running it from the UAE, pledging allegiance to foreign entities, and harming national unity and social peace\u201d.<\/p>\n The State Security Service added that the group had collected funds and transferred them to \u201csuspicious foreign entities\u201d, and had \u201cadopted extremist terrorist ideologies and ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n They are also accused of carrying out covert \u201crecruitment and indoctrination operations\u201d and holding meetings inside and outside the country with \u201cterrorist elements and suspicious organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir aim was to spread misleading ideas among Emirati youth and recruit them to serve foreign loyalties, incite against the country\u2019s foreign policy and internal procedures, and attempt to portray the country in a negative light,\u201d the statement asserted.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s barrage of attacks rattled a country long seen as a safe haven, targeting US assets but also civilian infrastructure including airports, energy infrastructure and tourist hubs.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the UAE said that Iran should pay for damage caused by its Gulf attacks.<\/p>\n Last month, the UAE said it arrested at least five members of a \u201cterrorist network\u201d linked to Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Arrests come after United Arab Emirates bore the brunt of Iranian attacks on Gulf neighbours. Published On 20 Apr 202620 Apr 2026 The United Arab Emirates has arrested members of an Iran-linked group that authorities accuse of plotting \u2018systematic terrorist and sabotage acts\u2019. The State Security Service said in a statement posted on social media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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