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Mohamed Fahmy: How the war forced Gulf states to dismantle Iran's terrorist cells

Security services around the world are on heightened alert for threats from the Islamic Republic's proxies

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One of the clearest dividends of the war with Iran has been the heightened vigilance of security services worldwide, which have moved decisively to dismantle Iranian-linked terror networks — most recently in the United Arab Emirates, where authorities say they disrupted a cell accused of plotting sabotage and destabilization.

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The UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s attacks during the conflict, with more than 2,800 missiles and drones launched toward its territory — more than any other Gulf state or even Israel. According to official assessments, over 90 per cent of these strikes were directed not at military targets, but at civilian infrastructure and economic hubs. SOURCE

Mohamed Fahmy: How the war forced Gulf states to dismantle Iran's terrorist cells Back to video

Within hours of landing in the UAE I found myself transfixed by broadcasts of sweeping security raids. On a local channel, scenes unfolded with dramatic intensity: 27 alleged members of a clandestine network, caught off guard in their homes or ambushed in their cars on the streets and in private garages, were dragged out and handcuffed by masked security forces in a coordinated crackdown that felt as sudden as it was decisive.

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The camera lingered on stacks of confiscated cash in multiple currencies, a small surveillance drone, and piles of books and propaganda materials. Among them were posters emblazoned with the image of Iran’s leadership — most notably Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a U.S.-Israeli strike on the opening day of the war.

Authorities say the cell was tasked with recruiting operatives through clandestine meetings and was guided by the ideology of Wilayat al-Faqih — the “Guardianship of the Jurist,” a doctrine of the Shiite Muslims that vests ultimate political and religious authority in a senior cleric. The system underpins Iran’s governing model, in which a supreme jurist (wali al-faqih) is entrusted with leading the state and guiding society in accordance with Islamic law.

The cover of one of the confiscated Arabic books lingered in the camera’s frame: The Shia Giant Has Emerged Out. The title alone sharpened the moment. It evoked the enduring undercurrent of Persian expansionist ambition—recast after 1979 as an ideological project to export the Islamic Revolution beyond Iran’s borders. At its core lies a vision of Iran, a majority-Shiite state, extending its reach across the region and the six Gulf nations that are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

Iran often portrays itself as a protector of Shiite communities, while in practice advancing its influence through a long-standing network of allied armed groups across the region often drawing neighbouring states into cycles of instability and internal interference.

Over decades, this has included actors such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and various militias in Iraq — groups widely viewed as part of Tehran’s broader regional strategy.

I was not surprised to learn that nearly half of the roughly 1,000 drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states during the war were launched from inside Iraq by Iran-backed proxy militias.

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In recent weeks, similar arrests have unfolded in Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, where authorities have dismantled terror cells linked to Hezbollah — the Lebanese Shiite group widely designated as a terrorist organization and long known to receive funding, training, and strategic direction from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

While covering the war in its early weeks from Kuwait — I sensed palpable tension within the Shiite community, estimated at 30-40 per cent of the population — feelings of discomfort, facing a suspicious spotlight as the country got pummelled with Iranian missiles and drones.

In Bahrain, where an estimated 60–70 per cent of the population is Shiite Muslim, the Ministry of Interior stated after arresting a terrorist cell that the suspects “revealed that during their travel to Lebanon, they received weapons training after meeting with members of Hezbollah,” and had shared photos and information concerning the impact of Iranian aggression against Bahrain amid the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.?

Nadim Koetich, an Emirati veteran journalist and media personality of Lebanese origin and of the Shiite Muslim faith, has been an outspoken voice during this war, offering poignant analysis. One of his posts on X caught my attention as it summarizes the magnitude of the global Hezbollah threat, coming amid a fragile 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, during which the Lebanese state is required to prevent Hezbollah from launching attacks against Israel. LINK?

“43 years ago, on April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber struck the US Embassy in Beirut. It wasn’t just an attack. It was a birth certificate: Hezbollah announcing itself to the world in blood. The architect was Hezbollah’s military leader Imad Mughniyeh. And what he invented that day wasn’t just a weapon. It was a methodology. In the early ’90s, he exported it to Hamas and Al Jihad in the West Bank: suicide bombings timed precisely to blow up the Oslo peace process to ensure that every window toward a negotiated future was closed in fire. He exported it further. His operatives trained Osama bin Laden’s men in Sudan. The technique Mughniyeh perfected in Beirut was deployed by Al Qaeda against the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. Mughniyeh’s slaughter school then reached Iraq, where it became the signature of a generation of bloodletting.

One man. One tactic. One unbroken chain from Beirut 1983 to the wreckage of an entire region. What followed in Lebanon was four decades of systematic destruction: a state hollowed out, a people held hostage, a country conscripted into wars that were never its to fight….”

At the outset of the war, I wrote a column highlighting how my hometown in Canada has become a safe haven for elements linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A Vancouver-based company has since been sanctioned by the United States over alleged ties to a $100 million network accused of financing Hezbollah. SOURCE? Seven Seas for International Trading and Logistics was listed alongside 16 individuals and entities across the Middle East and Canada, including its co-founder and CEO Raoof Fadel, as well as directors Mohamad and Ahmed Wehbe — all identified by U.S. authorities as part of a Hezbollah finance network and noted as residents of Qatar.

The case highlights how deeply transnational these financial webs have become — and how difficult they are to disentangle from legitimate business structures. It also underscores a broader geopolitical tension: The Gulf state of Qatar continues to face scrutiny over alleged ties to groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, even as it maintains close Western partnerships — while itself coming under fire during the recent war, with Iranian missile and drone strikes targeting critical infrastructure.

In a conversation this week with retired Navy SEAL John Hawley, who has spent decades investigating Hezbollah and Iranian terror networks, he told me:

“The recent California arrest of an Iranian businesswoman accused of selling drones and laundering money — and arrests across the Gulf — fit a pattern anyone who’s followed Tehran and its proxies has long seen. Iran and Hezbollah operate as a distributed, hybrid system that blends overt political and charity work with covert logistics, finance, and operational cells.

They build layers for plausible deniability: the IRGC/Quds Force directs and trains while militias and proxies execute. Small, compartmented cells and facilitators in permissive states and diaspora communities handle recruitment, surveillance, safehouses, procurement, and transport. Too often their activity is hidden inside legitimate‑seeming NGOs, charities, and corporate fronts that launder funds, buy dual‑use goods, and mask shipments and personnel.

Procurement mixes legal purchases and illicit tradecraft: commercial drone parts, electronics, and dual‑use items are acquired through front companies, brokers, and online marketplaces, then modified for military use. Money moves by trade‑based laundering, informal transfers, and layered banking supported by shell corporations and charities. Shipments are concealed in commercial cargo, routed through multiple countries, or couriered to avoid detection.”

As U.S.–Iran talks hang in the balance and a fragile ceasefire teeters on the brink — with no guarantee either will hold — the outcome remains deeply uncertain. Whether this moment leads to de-escalation or simply ushers in another, more protracted phase of conflict, one reality is already clear: security services cannot afford to look away.

They must remain relentlessly focused on the Iranian-linked networks and the broader ecosystem of proxy actors and covert cells that have, for decades, extended Tehran’s reach far beyond its borders.

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