UAE: List of terror groups

On 15 November, the UAE cabinet approved a list of 85 groups it said were terrorist organisations, including a number of western-based organisations as well as groups more widely accepted as terrorists. While there is little debate about the inclusion of groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State on such lists, the inclusion of Islamist non-governmental organisations and think tanks is surprising; such groups seem in the main to have been chosen because of their links to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose affiliates the UAE has been targeting with particular vigour since 2011.