Dubai keeps importing from Iran despite UAE's Tehran trade ban

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Dubai keeps importing from Iran despite UAE’s Tehran trade ban: report

September 14, 2026

DUBAI,— Saffron, cumin, pistachios and almonds from Iran continue to fill stalls in the markets of old Dubai, despite a war that has strained ties between the two sides of the Gulf, despite the new restrictions on trade, AFP reported.

The United Arab Emirates last month announced a suspension of trade and financial exchanges with Tehran.

Iran has responded to U.S. attacks by targeting the US-allied country and tightening its grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Yet Iranian merchants firmly established in old Dubai do not expect the ties built over decades between the UAE’s financial hub and southern Iran to be broken.

Some Iranian products have become harder to find since the war began, while prices for others have risen sharply, said Morteza Asaadi, who runs the grocery store his father founded in 1963.

Most traditional food products, including nuts and zereshk, small red berries used in Persian cuisine, remain available.

Two wholesalers interviewed by AFP on condition of anonymity said they continue to source goods from Iran, particularly through Omani ports. One said they can no longer export from the Emirates but can still bring in certain goods.

At Yasser’s saffron shop, the expensive spice is arriving by air from Mashhad in northeastern Iran after air links resumed following a brief interruption.

Dubai has a large Iranian community, estimated at several hundred thousand people. It has contributed to the emirate’s commercial development and endured repeated periods of tension with Tehran.

After the United States tightened sanctions on the Islamic Republic in 2012, Mehran Haghirian of the London-based Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think tank told AFP that people in Dubai persuaded partners in Abu Dhabi that trade needed to continue despite sanctions because it contributed to the UAE economy.

In 2024, the UAE was the main entry point for goods into Iran, accounting for more than 30 percent of imports valued at $21 billion.

The UAE was also Iran’s third-largest customer, taking nearly 12 percent of its exports worth more than $7 billion, according to the World Trade Organization.

Dubai is an important financial hub for Iranian businesses. Washington has accused the emirate of being a key node in financial networks used to circumvent sanctions.

At the end of August, the United States announced new measures targeting Iran’s trading partners as part of its economic pressure policy and sanctioned the director of the Dubai branch of Iran’s Bank Melli.

The bank nevertheless continues to welcome clients. “We’ve been under sanctions for years,” an employee at one of its two Dubai branches said.

Haghirian said Abu Dhabi’s announcement suspending relations with Iran is part of an effort to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table and demonstrate the Gulf country’s alignment with the United States.

He said the move would not necessarily stop informal flows or exchanges between private actors, which are deeply rooted on both sides of the Gulf.

A lasting rupture could eventually affect Dubai’s economy, Haghirian said. It would be difficult to cut the relationship suddenly without an impact, he said, adding that such a large share could not easily be replaced.

At a conference in Dubai, Emirati businessman and former senior official Nasser al-Shaikh played down those concerns, saying Iran is “no longer as important to the emirate’s economy as it was a few years ago.”

He acknowledged that the relationship was mutually beneficial but said that during war, priorities change and national security comes first.

In Bur Dubai, Asaadi remains convinced trade will survive the crisis.

“You see the water there?” he said, gesturing toward the Gulf separating the UAE from the coasts of southern Iran. “Water can break a mountain.”

(With files from AFP)