Posted on 06/16/2008 8:04:40 PM PDT by blam
Foreign Office raises United Arab Emirates threat level
By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 12:54PM BST 16/06/2008
British expatriates and tourists in the United Arab Emirates have been warned to exercise caution after the Foreign Office raised the risk of terrorism to its highest level.
It said attacks on the UAE - which encompasses the popular shopping destination of Dubai and the wealthy capital of Abu Dhabi - could happen at any time and would be "indiscriminate" in their target.
The terror threat - of which there are four levels - has been increased to high, which means a "high level of known terrorist activity". The other categories are general, underlying and low.
A statement on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website said: "There is a high threat from terrorism. We believe terrorists may be planning to carry out attacks in the UAE.
"Attacks could be indiscriminate and could happen at any time, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers such as residential compounds, military, oil, transport and aviation interests.
"You should maintain a high level of security awareness, particularly in public places."
An FCO spokesman said he could not go into specific detail as to what information may have triggered the rise in threat level.
He said: "The terrorism threat has risen from general to high. It's part of our general policy to keep our travel advice under constant review.
"It draws on a variety of sources available to the Government, including local knowledge, intelligence and experience of the FCO's overseas posts."
More than a million British visitors travel to the UAE every year. And as many as 120,000 British nationals live and work in the country, where they can earn relatively high wages.
The FCO says most visits to the Muslim country are trouble-free and incidents of street crime are rare.
But concerns have been voiced that al-Qa'eda may have supporters or operatives in the country and a tradition of smuggling and money-laundering has raised fears about terrorist funding.
The UAE, which is made up of seven states, strongly condemned the September 11 terrorist attacks.
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