Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates claimed to have disrupted several terror cells linked to Hezbollah over the past week. Both Persian Gulf countries alleged that their security forces identified networks associated with the Lebanese terrorist group that were conducting activities on their soil. Hezbollah denied the allegations, insisting it does not have operatives in the Gulf. The arrests come amidst the US-Israeli war with Iran, and the ongoing attacks by the Islamic Republic and its proxy groups against assets in several regional states.
Kuwait alleges to have disrupted 2 Hezbollah cells
On March 16, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry announced that its security forces had “successfully uncovered and apprehended a terror cell affiliated with the proscribed terrorist organization Hezbollah.” The statement alleged the cell “sought to undermine the country’s security and recruit individuals into the organization’s ranks.”
Kuwaiti security forces, the statement said, had uncovered a sabotage plot by this cell—comprised of 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese—and seized items in their possession, “including several firearms, ammunition, a weapon used for assassinations, encrypted communication devices (Morse Code), drones, flags and terror insignia, maps, drugs, funds, and weapons for training.” Additionally, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said that the investigation into the incident was ongoing and the detainees had been turned over to the public prosecutor.
Hezbollah issued a “categorical denial” of the Kuwaiti accusations on March 17, describing them as “entirely baseless fabrications that are entirely false and rejected.” Hezbollah’s statement said that the group had “repeatedly and unequivocally declared” it does not operate any cells in Kuwait and is “committed to Kuwait’s security, stability, and the safety of its people, as well as to fostering the best relations and cooperation between Lebanon and Kuwait—on both the governmental and popular levels.”
Despite Hezbollah’s denial, Kuwait alleged to have uncovered yet another Hezbollah-linked cell on March 18. The Interior Ministry’s statement said that Kuwaiti security forces had foiled a “terror plot to target vital facilities in the country” by a cell comprised of 10 citizens who were “affiliated with the proscribed terror organization Hezbollah.”
The cell, the statement alleged, had planned and coordinated the attack with unnamed “external entities” and spied on installations on their behalf “to provide them with coordinates for the targeted sites.” The statement further alleged that the cell’s members “confessed in detail” to receiving “training abroad in camps affiliated with Hezbollah, including in the use of weapons and drones, to prepare for conducting sabotage operations” in Kuwait.
Hezbollah again denied these new claims. In a March 19 statement, the group described the accusations as “false” and stressed its “profound commitment to the security, stability, and safety of the State of Kuwait and its fraternal people.”
The UAE reportedly uncovers a Hezbollah-Iran network
On March 20, the United Arab Emirates announced that its State Security Apparatus had “dismantled a terrorist network funded by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran, and arrested its member.” The network, it claimed, had operated “under a fictitious commercial cover to infiltrate the national economy and carry out external schemes threatening the country’s financial stability” and, “in coordination” with Hezbollah and Iran, had conspired to “launder money, finance terrorism, and threaten national security.”
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi quickly condemned this “terrorist plot targeting the United Arab Emirates” and denounced “the involvement of Hezbollah,” while recalling the Lebanese government’s decision on March 2 to proscribe the group’s military activities.
Hezbollah issued a denial of the UAE’s accusations the same day, calling them “utterly untrue and baseless.” The group insisted that it “does not have any presence in the UAE or other countries under any cover, economic or otherwise.” Hezbollah also stated that the accusations were part of “repeated attempts” to tarnish the group’s image, to serve goals obvious to all.
In addition, Hezbollah said that it “deplored the Lebanese Foreign Ministry’s irresponsible haste” in issuing a condemnation “against a central component of Lebanon” by repeating “external narratives without prior verification or due diligence.” The group claimed that Raggi’s statement disregarded the “minimum level of national responsibility, particularly in light of the brutal Israeli aggression currently targeting Lebanon and its people.”
Hezbollah’s record of activity in the Gulf
Hezbollah has a long history of operating in the Gulf states. Kuwait proscribed the group on March 2, 2016, and March 11, 2016, alongside the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League, respectively. While Kuwait did so as part of a collective action, in August 2015, Kuwaiti authorities uncovered the so-called “Abdali Cell,” composed of 26 individuals, “all Kuwaiti Shias except for one Iranian,” who “were charged with spying for Iran and Hezbollah and with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism in Kuwait and their weapons cache.” By January 2016, all 26 individuals had been convicted of acts aimed at undermining Kuwait’s national security.
Hezbollah also has a history of direct violent activity against Kuwaiti interests. In April 1988, hijackers affiliated with Hezbollah, including Hassan Izzeldine and possibly Imad Mughniyeh, seized Kuwait Airways Flight 422 and killed two Kuwaiti-national passengers, Abdullah Khalidi and Khalid Ayoub Bandar.
The hijacking was connected to an earlier Hezbollah-linked plot in Kuwait. In 1983, Iranian-backed militants linked to proto-Hezbollah cells carried out coordinated bombings against Kuwaiti national infrastructure, the US and French Embassies, and the Raytheon residential compound. The militant network included Mustafa Badreddine, one of Hezbollah’s earliest commanders and the group’s future chief of staff. In the aftermath, Hezbollah-linked cells conducted several operations to secure the release of the 17 operatives detained for involvement in the plot, dubbed the “Kuwait 17.”
In 1984, Kuwait Airways Flight 221 was hijacked by four militants linked to Hezbollah and diverted to Tehran. The hijackers killed two American USAID officials: Charles Hegna and William Stanford.
On May 25, 1985, a bomb-laden car struck Kuwaiti Emir Jabel Al Ahmad Al Sabah’s motorcade in Kuwait City. The emir was lightly wounded, but the attack killed four other people. A caller from Beirut claimed responsibility for the attacks in the name of Islamic Jihad, a cover name used by several cells linked to proto-Hezbollah, and demanded the release of the “Kuwait 17,” threatening that otherwise, “all the thrones in the Gulf” would shake.
The UAE also proscribed Hezbollah on November 15, 2014. In addition, on April 2016, a federal security court in the UAE ruled against three defendants allegedly tied to Lebanese Hezbollah. The charge was creating and managing an international-status group inside the state without government authorization. A related March 2016 report described the cell as a branch of Hezbollah in the UAE that had engaged in commercial, economic, and political activity without a license.
Likewise, in March 2016, a separate seven-defendant case in the UAE involved the alleged disclosure of state defense secrets to Hezbollah. The prosecution claimed that one defendant passed military contracting and security officer information to a Hezbollah member working for Iran; another passed Abu Dhabi oil and gas production information and field maps; others allegedly photographed the Interior and Foreign Ministries, a military camp, state security facilities, embassies, Abu Dhabi International Airport, and Dubai International Airport for Hezbollah.
Subsequently, in May 2019, the UAE Federal Court sentenced six Lebanese men, four of them to life, for setting up a terrorist cell with links to Hezbollah. However, five were later acquitted.
