Iran says teachers held over UAE work visa problems freed

The United Arab Emirates has released nine Iranian teachers it detained for nine days over work permit problems, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Iran provides teaching staff for 10 Iranian schools in the UAE which serve an emigre population estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and it summoned the Emirati charge d'affaires earlier this week to protest the teachers' detention.

"Minutes ago, the arrested teachers were released by the UAE," IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Ghashghavi as saying late on Friday.

A UAE official had reportedly said the teachers' work permits were valid only for Dubai and were invalid in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, where they were arrested in the town of Al-Ain on October 7.