DUBAI, July 26 (Reuters) - Dubai's chief of police has
warned of an "international plot" to overthrow the governments
of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared
to counter any threat from Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers as
well as Syria and Iran.
The comments from Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken
security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the
detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents,
according to relatives of the detainees and activists.
"There's an international plot against Gulf states in
particular and Arab countries in general... This is pre-planned
to take over our fortunes," Khalfan told reporters at a
gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
"The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we
put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to
take over our countries... The Brothers and their governments in
Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red
line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well."
Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt, dismissed the accusation, saying the remarks did not
deserve a reaction. Ghozlan was involved in a row with the UAE
earlier this year when Khalfan also accused the Brotherhood of
trying to sow discord in the UAE.
"I promised myself to pay no attention to this man or to
comment on everything he has to say," said Ghozlan, whose
movement won Egypt's presidential election in June.
Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by
an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the
rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as
Egypt.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates and a major oil
exporter, allows no organised political opposition. It has
avoided the political unrest that has toppled four Arab heads of
state since last year thanks in part to its cradle-to-grave
welfare system.
But it has also moved swiftly against dissidents, and last
year stripped citizenship from Islamists whom it deemed a
security threat and jailed activists who called for more power
for a semi-elected advisory council.
Analysts say Islamists are aiming to tap into unease among
the UAE's largely conservative citizens at having become a
minority in their own country, most of whose 8 million people
are foreign workers.
The economic boom in Abu Dhabi and Dubai has given the UAE
an average per capita annual income of $48,000, but has also
brought what some see as unwelcome Western influence.
Islamists in the UAE say they share similar ideology with
the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt but have no direct links with
the group, seen as a mentor for Islamist groups in the region.
They say they want more civil rights and greater power for
the Federal National Council, a quasi-parliamentary body that
advises the government but has no legislative power.
UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to
comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that
authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning
"crimes against the security of the state".
"I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim
Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard
because the wider these groups become, the higher probability
there is for trouble," Khalfan said on Wednesday.
"We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow
Gulf governments in the long term."