Iran's economic ties to Dubai hard to break despite Middle East tensions

Iran's economic ties to Dubai hard to break despite Middle East tensions.

Key points

• In 2024, the UAE was the main entry point for goods into Iran, accounting for more than 30 per cent of imports, worth $21 billion.
• It was additionally Iran's third-largest customer, absorbing almost 12pc of its exports, worth more than $7 billion, according to the World Trade Organisation.
• Last month, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed the suspension of trade and financial exchanges with Tehran.
• Since the start of the war, certain Iranian products have become scarcer, and others have seen their rates soar, states Morteza Asaadi.
• Two wholesalers interviewed by AFP on condition of anonymity remarked they are still sourcing from Iran, notably via Omani ports.

Iran's economic ties to Dubai hard to break despite Middle East tensions. AFP Published September 13, 2026 Updated September 13, 2026 07: 29pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

As if the two shores of the Gulf were not separated by the ongoing regional conflict, in the markets of old Dubai, saffron, cumin, pistachios and almonds from Iran still fill the stalls.

Last month, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed the suspension of trade and financial exchanges with Tehran. It has responded to American attacks by targeting the US-allied country and tightening its grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

But in old Dubai, where Iranian merchants are firmly established, they do not believe there will be a break in the ties forged over decades between the UAE's financial hub and southern Iran.

Since the start of the war, certain Iranian products have become scarcer, and others have seen their rates soar, states Morteza Asaadi. This person runs the grocery store his father founded in 1963.

Most traditional foodstuffs, such as nuts or zereshk – small red berries applied in Persian cuisine – remain available, even so.

"It's just coming. How? I don't know, but it's coming, " he remarked.

"We can't export from the Emirates anymore, but we can still bring in certain goods, " one of them remarked.

In Yasser's saffron shop, the precious spice arrives by air from Mashhad, in northeastern Iran, thanks to the resumption of air links after a brief interruption.

Dubai is home to a sizeable Iranian community, estimated at a number of hundred thousand individuals. It has contributed to the emirate's commercial development and weathered the various periods of tension with Tehran.

After the US tightened its sanctions against the Islamic republic in 2012, "those in Dubai managed to convince their partners in Abu Dhabi that the trade, regardless of the sanctions, needed to continue because it was contributing to the UAE economy, " Mehran Haghirian of the London-based Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think tank informed AFP.

Dubai is an significant financial hub for Iranian businesses, with Washington accusing it of being a key node in financial networks employed to circumvent sanctions.

As part of its policy of economic pressure on Iran, the United States confirmed new measures at the end of August targeting Iran's trading partners, and sanctioned the director of the Dubai branch of Iran's Bank Melli. The institution nonetheless continues to welcome clients.

"We've been under sanctions for years, " sighs an employee at one of two branches in Dubai.

For Haghirian, Abu Dhabi's announcement of the suspension of relations with Iran is part of efforts to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, and is meant to show the Gulf country's alignment with the United States.

But it will not necessarily cut informal flows or exchanges between private actors. It are deeply rooted on both sides of the Gulf.

In the long run, a lasting rupture could even weigh on Dubai's economy.

"It's tough to just suddenly cut it off and not have an impact, leave a enormous chunk. That chunk cannot easily be replaced, " he stressed.

But at a conference in Dubai, Emirati businessman and former senior official in the emirate, Nasser al-Shaikh, downplayed these reservations, saying that Iran is "no longer as important to the emirate's economy as it was a few years ago".

"The relationship was mutually beneficial, " he conceded, but "in times of war, priorities change. National security comes first".

In his shop in Bur Dubai, Asaadi is convinced that trade will survive the current crisis.

"You see the water there?" he remarked, gesturing at the Gulf separating the UAE from the coasts of southern Iran. "Water can break a mountain."

In short, iran' s economic ties to Dubai hard to break despite Middle East tensions is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.