Consultancy giants like PwC and Deloitte on Wednesday evacuated Dubai’s business districts while HSBC closed its office in Qatar amid threats from Iran that it will target economic and financial infrastructure as the West Asia conflict escalated.
Citi, the prominent American banking group, requested employees to evacuate its offices located in both the DIFC and Oud Metha as a defensive measure to ensure employee safety. British consulting firms have followed suit with even broader measures that span the region.
PwC announced it will shutter its offices acrossWest Asia, including locations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait – for the remainder of the week as a “precaution". Similarly, Deloitte instructed its staff to vacate their DIFC premises as the threat level intensified.
According to sources, employees at two other unnamed companies within the DIFC also confirmed that their offices had been evacuated as a precautionary measure.
“The evacuations at the heart of the Middle East’s financial hub come as the Gulf, but especially the UAE, has borne the brunt of Iran’s attacks in response to US-Israeli strikes," the sources said.
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The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has historically been a symbol of West Asia’s economic resilience and its status as a premier global hub.
But, there was a sudden wave of emergency evacuations after Iran’s specificmilitary threatsto target global businesses affiliated with the United States and Israel. Hence, global financial and consulting giants are beating a hasty retreat, so as to keep its employees safe as the security environment within the United Arab Emirates becomes increasingly fragile.
Iran’s central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, issued a stark declaration regarding the new rules of engagement: “the enemy has given us free rein to target economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime".
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Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
