The United Arab Emirates has ordered the closure of an Iranian state-linked hospital in Dubai amid escalating tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

The decision comes as ties deteriorate due to Tehran’s aerial campaign against Gulf states following strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel starting February 28.

Since then, Tehran has launched multiple waves of missiles and drones targeting Gulf states, including more than 2,000 attacks on the UAE alone.

The strikes have prompted Abu Dhabi to recall its ambassador to Iran and close its diplomatic mission there.

Iran-linked entities, including schools, have faced closures despite longstanding economic and community connections between the two nations.

“The government asked all of us to leave,” an employee at the hospital told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“The hospital management told us it was because of Iran’s attacks on the UAE,” he added.

The Iranian hospital, run by the Iranian Red Crescent Society, employs more than 700 people and stands as one of the oldest healthcare facilities in the UAE.

A UAE official told AFP “certain institutions directly linked to the Iranian regime and IRGC will be closed under targeted measures” after being found to violate UAE laws.

“These measures are administrative in nature and will be implemented in an orderly manner to ensure continuity of essential services,” they added.

At least three staff members said they were informed of the closure during a staff meeting last Saturday and asked to vacate the premises in the coming days.

“We never expected it to happen so quickly,” one doctor told AFP. “There were officials and security personnel inside the compound when I came to work on Tuesday.”

Patients have been transferred to other facilities in Dubai, according to staff, while the hospital’s website has been taken down.

At least four Iranian schools have also been shut in Dubai, according to members of the Iranian community.

Signage at the Towheed Iranian School in Dubai has been removed, and a security guard at the site told AFP the school was closed.

The Iranian Club in Dubai, also linked to Tehran, announced it had suspended activities in a statement on Instagram on Monday, citing “current circumstances”.

On Friday, the UAE arrested at least five members of an Iran- and Hezbollah-linked network accused of seeking to “infiltrate the national economy” and threaten UAE financial stability.

Iran and the UAE share deep cultural and historical ties as neighbouring countries across the Gulf, with centuries-old connections through coastal communities, trade routes, and family networks.

Some Iranian hospital staff expressed fears that their lives were being upended as the conflict pitted their homeland against their adopted home.

“We came here to escape the situation back home,” said a doctor who has worked at the hospital for more than a decade.

“It is heartbreaking that our lives are affected like this.”