Iran airports reopen after retaliatory attack on Israel

AFP , Monday 15 Apr 2024

Airports in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran resumed operations Monday, state media said, after a temporary suspension due to an aerial attack on the arch of Israel that heightened regional tensions.

iran
A banner depicting missiles and drones flying past a torn Israeli flag, with text in Persian reading the next slap will be harder and in Hebrew your next mistake will be the end of your fake state , hangs on the facade of a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on April 2024. AFP

 

Flights were suspended after Iran launched late Saturday its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, using drones and missiles, in retaliation for a deadly April 1 Israeli air strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus.

The official IRNA news agency reported that "flights at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran were back to normal as of 6:00 am (0230 GMT)."

IRNA said the domestic Mehrabad airport in Tehran and others across the country including Tabriz in the northwest, Mashhad in the northeast, and Shiraz in the south are all "operating as scheduled".

The Iranian attack and fears of a potential Israeli reprisal have led some airlines to suspend flights to the region.

Israel has not revealed what its response could look like.

German airline Lufthansa has suspended its flights to and from Iran, while others including Australian airline Qantas rerouted planes to avoid Iran's airspace.

The attack also prompted several countries in the Middle East including Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq to close their airspace overnight from Saturday to Sunday, but all have reopened.

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