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MANILA - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is prepared to assist Filipinos who may be affected by the rising tension in the Middle East, after Saudi Arabia and Iran severed diplomatic ties.

DFA spokesperson Charles Jose on Tuesday said the Philippine embassies in Riyadh and Tehran are closely monitoring the situation and are prepared should a conflict arise.

"It's difficult to speculate on what could happen next but we are hoping the situation will not get any worse but in any case like I said previously our embassies in Riyadh and Tehran are both prepared to assist our Filipino workers there in the Middle East," Jose said.

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The DFA said there are around 800,000 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and around 4,000 in Iran. Jose said most Filipinos in the two countries are professionals while there are some who are married to Iranian nationals.

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Jose also echoed other nations' call for Riyadh and Tehran to exercise restraint after they severed diplomatic ties.

"We hope they would be able to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue," he said.

He added said Philippines is exercising neutrality in the Saudi-Iran rift to protect the country's interests.

"We are trying to strike a balance between them so we are trying to be neutral in this situation. Of course our primary concern are our Filipino workers in the Middle East and of course we have also our economic concern as to source of oil and also political because we get support from Middle East countries for our peace process in Mindanao," Jose said.

READ: Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates