Dell has told employees not to travel to the Middle East for work until mid-April, and advised staff based in the region to work from home, after Iran threatened to strike US businesses.
In an internal note uploaded to Dell’s SharePoint on Tuesday, which Business Insider has seen, the company said it was prioritizing team member safety amid the conflict.
The tech giant was among the 18 companies named this week by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as potential targets.
In a statement published by the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency on Tuesday, it warned that the companies could be hit with strikes as early as 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday. No attacks on the companies had been reported as of Friday.
The list included major multinationals such as Meta, Tesla, Boeing, Cisco, Intel, IBM, Palantir, and JPMorgan.
The internal note from Dell seen by Business Insider said: “As the situation in the Middle East continues to evolve, we want to take a moment to reaffirm that the health and safety of our team members remain our number one priority.”
Dell added that “many in the Middle East” were being instructed to work from home for their safety, and that its Security & Resiliency Operations (SRO) team is actively monitoring and managing both physical and cyber security threats globally.
Acknowledging that it was “an uncertain time,” the company also directed employees to a list of resources, including counseling and well-being support, as well as links to the ISOS travel and health support app.
Dell has a presence in several countries across the region. The company declined to comment for this story.
Prior to being directly threatened on Tuesday, Dell had already imposed strict limits on business travel to the region through April 15th, according to a travel advisory document posted on its internal SharePoint on March 25, also seen by Business Insider.
The company said employees should not travel to, from, or transit through Israel, Lebanon, or the Middle East region (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) for work.
“Transit includes layovers and connections in the impacted-do not travel region,” the document said.
The warnings come as the conflict, which began in late February following a joint US-Israeli operation against Iran, continues to reverberate across the region.
Since then, there have been intermittent retaliatory attacks from Iran and heightened security alerts across several Gulf states. While many incoming threats have been intercepted, the situation has disrupted travel and raised concerns for multinational companies with employees and assets in the region.
The US government has urged its citizens in the region to leave, and many companies with operations, employees, and clients in the region have issued similar guidance to Dell.
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