Lufthansa suspends Teheran flights; Middle East on alert for potential Iran attacks

BERLIN/DUBAI - German airline Lufthansa said on April 10 that it had suspended flights to Teheran due to the situation in the Middle East, which is on alert for possible Iranian retaliation for a suspected Israeli air strike on Iran’s embassy in Syria.

An Iranian news agency briefly stoked tensions further when it published an Arabic report on social media platform X saying all airspace over Teheran was closed for military drills. The agency then removed the report and denied it had issued such news.

Countries in the region and the US have been on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran since April 1 when

Israeli warplanes were suspected of bombing the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.

Lufthansa said it suspended flights to and from Teheran from April 6 until probably April 11.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East and are in close contact with the authorities. The safety of our guests and crew members is Lufthansa’s top priority,” a spokesperson for the company told Reuters.

Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines are the only two Western carriers operating international flights into Teheran, which is mostly served by Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines.

Austrian Airlines runs a direct Vienna-Teheran service six times a week and was still scheduled to operate its flight into Teheran on April 11, according to its website and FlightRadar24.

There was no immediate word from other international airlines that fly to Teheran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished, and it shall be” for the Damascus strike that killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members.

Among them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, an elite overseas unit of the Revolutionary Guards.

Israel, which launched a war in the Gaza Strip six months ago against Iran-backed Hamas, has not confirmed it was behind the Damascus strike, but the Pentagon said it was.

Could strikes be imminent?

In an apparent response to Ayatollah Khamenei, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel will respond if Iran attacks Israel from its own soil.

The US and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel are imminent, reported Bloomberg in the evening of April 10, citing US and Israeli security sources.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, made clear that the US would stand with Israel against any threats by Iran, the State Department said.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iraq, meanwhile, spoke on April 10 by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister and discussed regional tensions, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger flight on Jan 8, 2020, shortly after it took off from Teheran Airport, at a time of heightened tensions between Teheran and Washington over the

killing of a top Iranian commander in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport.

Teheran later said the downing of the Ukrainian airliner was a “disastrous mistake” by forces who were on high alert.

In retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani, head of an elite overseas unit of the Guards, Iranian forces fired missiles at military bases housing US troops in Iraq on Jan 3.

Iran backs groups that have entered the fray across the region since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza following the

Oct 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in six months of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there. Hamas’ Oct 7 attack killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. REUTERS