Lufthansa suspends Tehran flights, Middle East on alert for potential Iran attacks

Lufthansa planes stand parked as Frankfurt airport is closed to passengers with planned departures due to a strike organized by Verdi union, in Frankfurt, Germany, March 7, 2024. REUTERS/ Kai Pfaffenbach/File

BERLIN – German airline Lufthansa said on Wednesday it had suspended flights to Tehran 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 Tehran had been closed for military drills. The agency then removed the report and denied it had issued such news.

Countries in the region and the United States 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 Tehran 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.

On Wednesday three of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s sons and for of his grandsons were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Palestinian leader and Israel’s military said, as war rages on after more than six months.

Haniyeh said the deadly strike would fail to force Hamas’s hand in negotiations towards a truce and hostage release.

“If they (Israel) think that targeting my children… at the peak of these talks and before the movement’s response if they think that this will force Hamas to change its positions, they are delusional,” he added.

“The blood of my children is not more precious than the blood of the Palestinian people,” he said.

“We will not back down on our demands,” he added.

Haniyeh also told Al Jazeera that, in total, nearly “60 members of my family have been martyred, including my grandchildren, my brother’s sons, my sister’s sons and my cousins”.

(Reuters)