Iran
Iranian foreign ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei speaks to reporters on March 2, 2026. Photo: IRIMFA/X
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Tuesday criticized the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over its detention of more than two dozen individuals a day earlier, rejecting the allegations of links to Tehran as “vague and unfounded.” The remarks came after Abu Dhabi said it dismantled a “terrorist organization” connected to Iran’s Wilayat al-Faqih - Guardianship of the Jurist - doctrine.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) cited Iranian foreign ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei as “condemning” Abu Dhabi’s detention of some 27 individuals on what he claimed were “vague and unfounded pretexts.”
“Raising such baseless allegations and engaging in anti-Iran propaganda cannot distract public opinion from the direct responsibility of those who support and back American-Israeli aggressors in their military offensive against Iran,” Baqaei added.
Characterizing the arrests as an act of “blame-shifting,” Baqaei cautioned that such measures “will not help build trust among countries in the region,” urging Abu Dhabi to “uphold human rights and dignity,” avoid “retaliatory behavior,” and “return to the principle of good neighborliness.”
The state-run Emirati News Agency (WAM) on Monday published images of 27 individuals whom Abu Dhabi’s State Security Department (SSD) identified as members of a “terrorist organization” engaged in covert activities aimed at undermining national unity and destabilizing security through the planning of systematic terrorist and sabotage operations within the UAE.
The SSD added that “investigations revealed that the group is linked to the Wilayat al-Faqih in Iran” - the foundational political-religious doctrine of the Islamic Republic which holds that, in the absence of the Twelfth Shiite Imam, authority over the state should rest with the most qualified Islamic jurist.
Enshrined in Iran’s constitution, the latter doctrine positions the country’s supreme leader as both the highest political authority and the guardian of its religious order; that role has since early March been held by Mojtaba Khamenei.
Investigations found that members of the organization “adopted extremist terrorist ideologies and beliefs that threaten internal security,” and carried out “recruitment and mobilization operations through secret meetings, based on a coordinated plan with external parties, with the aim of reaching sensitive positions,” WAM added.
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