TEHRAN (AFP) – Airports in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran resumed operations yesterday, state media said, after a temporary suspension due to an aerial attack on archfoe Israel that heightened regional tensions.
Flights were suspended after Iran launched late on Saturday its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, using drones and missiles, in retaliation for a deadly April 1 air strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus which was widely attributed to Israel.
The official IRNA news agency reported that “flights at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran were back to normal as of 6am”.
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”.
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 on Saturday to Sunday, but all have reopened.
