{"id":307579,"date":"2026-03-01T06:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:14:08","slug":"iran-strikes-we-dont-know-when-we-can-leave-kiwi-restaurateurs-trapped-in-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307579\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran strikes: ‘We don’t know when we can leave’ – Kiwi restaurateurs trapped in Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sid<\/p>\n

\nRestaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat are in Dubai on business. File photo.
\nPhoto: Babiche Martens\n<\/p>\n

A prominent Auckland couple is trapped in Dubai after airspace closures and reported strikes across the city.<\/p>\n

Restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat are in Dubai on business, and were due to fly out on Monday to begin a culinary tour in India.<\/p>\n

Chand Sahrawat said they received a text alert just after midnight and heard explosions soon afterwards.<\/p>\n

“We heard a couple of booms,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And we’ve just woken up to news that the airport has been hit and the Burj Al Arab has also been hit.”<\/p>\n

Sid Sahrawat said one hotel in the city had reportedly taken a hit earlier, which he described as “scary”.<\/p>\n

The couple said roads were noticeably quieter after the alerts went out, with many people staying indoors as a precaution.<\/p>\n

“It just feels very surreal and unreal,” Chand Sahrawat said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve never been in a situation where a country has had to lock down because of a war.”<\/p>\n

She said they had registered their details on the New Zealand government’s SafeTravel website, but had not had direct contact from officials.<\/p>\n

It was difficult to access reliable information as English-language local news coverage was limited and they had been relying on international outlets and online reports.<\/p>\n

All airspace across parts of the Middle East has been disrupted amid escalating regional tensions.<\/p>\n

Chand Sahrawat said the closure of Dubai Airport was particularly worrying.<\/p>\n

“It’s one thing to close airspace for protective reasons,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But to actually hit the airport is scary. We don’t know when we can leave.”<\/p>\n

The couple’s children were in New Zealand. Chand Sahrawat said explaining the situation to them had been difficult.<\/p>\n

For now, they plan to remain where they are until flights resume, as neighbouring countries have also been affected by airspace closures.<\/p>\n

“It just feels like a different world.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat are in Dubai on business. File photo. Photo: Babiche Martens A prominent Auckland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-307579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}