Official sources yesterday reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was involved in the recent tensions flared at the Egyptian intelligence.

France’s Intelligence Online recently reported that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Bin Zayed AL-Nahyan, had informed the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, that his country was “disturbed by the intelligence chief Ahmed Shabaan,” following his recent criticism to the Gulf state over “not abiding by its commitments to Egypt.”

The dispute came days before the crisis that had been escalating for months in Egyptian intelligence.

Read: Egypt’s Sisi appoints son’s father-in-law to restructure media sector

On Sunday, Mada Masr – one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets – said Egyptian security forces raided its offices and briefly detained three of its staff, including its top editor, and confiscated their laptops and phones. All three were later released from a local police station.

The move came as the news agency had released an article – entitled “President’s eldest son, Mahmoud Al-Sisi, sidelined from powerful intelligence position to diplomatic mission in Russia” – on its website about Sisi’s one and his appointment as a defence attaché in the country’s diplomatic mission in Russia. The article also pointed to the “current crisis” among intelligence leadership.