Following the footsteps of the UAE, Kuwait closes the operation of Iranian schools

2 students after school hours in Sistan and Baluchestan, a province in Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. (mohammad moslehi-unsplash)

JAKARTA - The government of Kuwait has officially revoked the operating permit and closed the only private Iranian school operating in the country.

The decision to close was taken by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education with claims for the public interest, amid rising geopolitical tensions and Iran's retaliatory attacks on countries in the Gulf region, alias the Middle East, which host US military bases, including Kuwait.

"The Minister of Education issued a decision to revoke the operating permit of the Iranian private school and close it," read the text of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education's decision seen by AFP, Thursday, August 6.

The ministry's decision also instructed parents to immediately transfer their children from Iranian private schools in Kuwait to other educational institutions before the new school year begins.

A similar move was also taken by the UAE at the start of the US-Iran conflict against schools and hospitals that were considered to have links to the Iranian Government.

In March 2026, the UAE closed a hospital linked to the Iranian Government in Dubai, and at least four Iranian schools were also closed, according to employees and members of the local Iranian community.

"Certain institutions that have direct links to the Iranian regime and the IRGC will be closed through special measures after being proven to have violated UAE law," an UAE official claimed.

The Gulf states are known to bear the brunt of Iran's retaliatory attacks for the US military aggression; Kuwait and Bahrain have been the most severely affected parties in recent weeks, after the ceasefire between the US and Iran failed.

Repeated attacks on power plants and desalination plants in Kuwait prompted authorities to ask residents to conserve electricity last month.