Confidential UAE memo details plan to push France to act against Muslim Brotherhood
The United Arab Emirates has developed an ”action plan” intended to push French authorities into taking action against the Muslim Brotherhood and organisations with alleged ties to it, according to the investigative website Mediapart, which obtained the confidential memo.
Sent last August by the European directorate of the Emirati foreign ministry to the second-in-command at the UAE embassy in France, Ahmed al-Mulla, the 13-page document details a “multi-sectoral mobilisation strategy” to ”encourage French authorities to strengthen measures” against the organisation.
“The objective must be to encourage French authorities to reinforce measures - whether restrictions, designations, or tightened regulatory oversights of MB [Muslim Brotherhood]-linked entities - through channels that respect and align with France’s own domestic frameworks and political priorities,” the note says.
France is described as a “target country” and a fertile ground for influence operations against the Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the UAE.
“The political and media environment in France is increasingly favourable to increased surveillance of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist networks linked to it,” notes the Emirati diplomatic service.
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To achieve its goal, the embassy “recommends a multi-track engagement strategy simultaneously at different levels of the French system: the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and Security Services, parliamentary bodies, civil society stakeholders, and the media”.
The memo advocates increasing “private” and “discreet” meetings with various identified contacts, particularly in the French foreign ministry and President Emmanuel Macron's inner circle, with whom the UAE aims to cultivate closer ties “discreetly”, by “focusing on key advisers who guide presidential decision-making”.
'The political and media environment in France is increasingly favourable to increased surveillance of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist networks linked to it'
- UAE foreign ministry internal note
The plan suggests providing various documents written in such a way as to be “reusable” by the French authorities and to “facilitate their circulation” up to the presidency and the prime minister's office.
It also recommends building a network of elected officials, particularly MPs, who can be approached “regarding parliamentary issues, amendments, or statements of support”, and to whom the UAE will “discreetly” provide documents for use “by parliamentary inquiry committees or missions”.
The plan eventually emphasises the “essential role” played by the French media landscape in “shaping public opinion” on the Muslim Brotherhood, and stresses the need to work with think tanks to “shape the narrative” and “regularly brief French experts approached by the media [so] their contributions naturally influence the public debate”.
The memo shows the UAE's interest in the French right and far right, which are described as being more receptive to Abu Dhabi's arguments about the alleged dangers posed by the Muslim Brotherhood. “The centre and the right have converged on the need to restrict the influence of political Islam,” it says.
With the utmost discretion
The document reinforces suspicions of Emirati interference in French political life.
In 2023, an investigation called Abu Dhabi Secrets revealed that the UAE was behind a large-scale disinformation and smearing campaign operated via a Swiss intelligence firm, Alp Services, “to influence the press and publish false articles attacking Qatar”, perceived by the UAE as a backer of political Islam.
According to Mediapart, around 200 individuals and 120 organisations portrayed as having links to the Muslim Brotherhood were targeted in France, including former Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon, the left-wing party France Unbowed (LFI) and the National Centre for Scientific Research.
The topic of Emirati interference resurfaced in the news last November, when it was revealed that a controversial poll on Muslims in France, conducted by one of the country’s leading survey institutes, was commissioned by a media company linked to this campaign.
The poll, which suggests that there is “a phenomenon of 're-Islamisation'” in France “accompanied by a worrying increase in adherence to Islamist ideology”, was the subject of several legal complaints for asking interviewees biased questions and inciting discrimination against Muslims.
In December, LFI leader and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon denounced “the influence of networks linked to the United Arab Emirates” in France, including in the work of a parliamentary inquiry committee launched by a group of right-wing MPs to shed light on the alleged “links between representatives of political movements and organisations and networks supporting terrorist activity or propagating Islamist ideology”.
Appearing before the committee, which unsuccessfully tried to demonstrate any infiltration of the left-wing party by the Muslim Brotherhood, Melenchon warned against “a power outside of France that is manipulating and interfering in all sorts of circumstances to settle its scores with Qatar”.
In light of “the heightened sensitivities towards political interference”, the authors of the Emirati memo repeatedly emphasise the need for discretion.
“Any involvement perceived as intrusive or directive could provoke a backlash and harm the UAE's contribution,” the note says.
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