The UAE has shut the Dubai office of US-funded pro-democracy group, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), according to the US State Department.

The decision came after NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI), which are loosely linked to the main US political parties, were prosecuted in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities accused NDI, IRI and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of operating on illegal funding from overseas.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented on the closure of the NDI’s Dubai office while in Saudi Arabia as part of a two-country tour in the Middle East, according to a new report.

“We very much regret it,” she told reporters in Riyadh. “[…] I expect our discussions on this to continue.”

The Emirati government has reportedly also closed down the Abu Dhabi office of Germany-based pro-democracy NGO Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

The UAE has been relatively unaffected by the political revolutions which have swept across the Arab world over the last year.

Outside the case of five activists arrested in 2011, there has been little visible call for democratic reform in the UAE, which does not allow political parties. The activists were pardoned by the president in December.