Thousands of regular flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled since the start on Saturday of U.S. and Israeli air strikes against the Islamic Republic that provoked Iranian retaliation. The cancellations reportedly left 20,000 passengers stranded in the UAE alone. They are believed to include hundreds of Armenian nationals who arrived in the UAE as tourists or for connecting flights to or from third countries. The number of Armenians stuck in Qatar and Kuwait was much smaller.
With normal operations of the UAE airports still suspended, the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi helped to organize special flights to Yerevan from neighboring Oman’s capital Muskat carried out by an Armenian airline, Fly One. The first 15 evacuees had to pay over $1,200 each for their air tickets. The embassy only provided them with free transportation by bus to Muskat. It said that Fly One will carry out another Muskat-Yerevan flight on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan spoke with his Omani counterpart Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi by phone later in the day. According to an Armenian readout of the call, Mirzoyan thanked Oman for “facilitating necessary procedures for the return of Armenian citizens.”
UAE - Smoke billows from Zayed port after an Iranian attack, Abu Dhabi, March 1, 2026.
The UAE government said on Sunday that it will pay for the hotel stays of foreign tourists for the time being. Among them are Isabella Sargsian, an Armenian woman, and her three young children.
“We will keep staying in the same hotel room at the Abu Dhabi government’s expense,” Sargsian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service from the Emirati capital.
“The situation is volatile,” she said. “There were no alerts yesterday. But last night, from 2:40 to around 4 a.m., we heard powerful bangs. There were no explosions [on the ground] as their air defense struck [targets] in the air.”
Another Armenian, Richard Zakarian, remained stuck on a cruise ship docked at a local port.
“We have been told that if we go ashore we will bear full responsibility for our security,” he said.
Sevan Shirvanian and over a dozen other Armenian tourists were left stranded in Kuwait on their way back from Sri Lanka. They have been staying in a local hotel.
“Air raid sirens go off regularly, and we can also hear air defense gunfire,” said Shirvanian.