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Travel disruptions still hit Middle East in wake of US-Israel-Iran conflict | Israel-Iran conflict News

Airlines are forced to reroute or cancel flights, affecting major hubs like Doha and Dubai, despite a ceasefire announced between Iran and Israel.

The Israel-Iran conflict, together with the military intervention of the United States and Tehran’s retaliation, has continued to heavily disrupt global travel despite some Middle East nations saying their airspaces were now open again.

The delays, suspensions and cancellations by multiple airlines continued on Tuesday after Iran launched a limited missile attack on US forces at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base on Monday in retaliation for US strikes on Sunday at three Iranian nuclear sites.

Qatar temporarily closed its airspace just hours earlier, forcing state-owned Qatar Airways to announce that its flights were suspended because of the closure.

Airports throughout the region have been on edge since Israel began the deadly conflict on June 13 – with a surprise barrage of attacks on Iran, which retaliated with its own missile and drone strikes.

Passengers queue at Dubai International Airport, following Iran Monday's attack on a U.S. military base, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 24, 2025.
Passengers queue at Dubai International Airport, following Iran’s Monday attack on a US military base, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 24, 2025 [Reuters]

In the days following the US strikes, more and more carriers cancelled flights, particularly in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which sit just across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

While US President Donald Trump announced a truce between Tehran and Tel Aviv late on Monday night, many airlines have halted select routes through the middle of the week, citing safety concerns.

Middle East carriers severely affected

Dubai-based Emirates suspended all flights to Iran and Iraq, including those serving Baghdad and Basra, through June 30. An unspecified number of other Emirates flights were rerouted but continuing to operate as scheduled, using flight paths well distanced from conflict areas, according to the airline, which added that some flights may be delayed.

Gulf Air, the carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, extended the cancellation of scheduled flights to Jordan until June 27.

Air tracking data from FlightAware showed 382 cancellations worldwide just after 10:30am ET (14:30 GMT) Tuesday, following 834 cancellations seen on Monday.

Airports in the Middle East are some of the busiest in the world, covering an area stretching from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean and serving as a connecting hub for flights between Europe and Asia.

However, in an early sign of normalcy returning to the region, Iraqi airspace reopened and flights were now transiting it, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 wrote on X on Tuesday.

It’s unclear whether Iranian airspace is now also open to international arrivals and departures to and from Tehran.

In the meantime, the Israel Airports Authority says Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv is returning to full operation.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines cancelled some flights to and from Dubai starting Sunday and through Wednesday, citing “a security assessment of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East”.

And British Airways said it had suspended flights to and from Doha through Wednesday, adding that it “will keep the situation under review”.

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US-Israel-Iran conflict: List of key events, June 24, 2025 | News

Here are the key events as a ceasefire was declared in the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Tuesday, June 24:

Fighting

  • A US-brokered ceasefire began at around 04:00 GMT on Tuesday, with Iran halting attacks first and Israel following suit 12 hours later.
  • After a rocky start, the ceasefire was holding later in the day, with the missiles and drones silent in both directions for the first time in nearly two weeks.
  • The phased 24-hour process was initially violated by both Iran and Israel.
  • Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz initially ordered “intense strikes” on Tehran, accusing Iran of violating the truce first, something Iran denies.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin quickly acceded to United States President Donald Trump’s demand to stand down on further attacks.
  • Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s military “destroyed a radar installation near Tehran”, claiming it was in retaliation for several earlier Iranian missile strikes.
  • Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said 14 missiles were launched against military centres across Israel, adding that the last wave of missiles was carried out minutes before the ceasefire implementation and in response to deadly Israeli strikes.

Casualties and disruptions

  • Iran’s Red Crescent Society announced that four of its ambulance workers were killed by the Israeli military. They identified the medics as Mojtaba Maleki, Mehdi Zartaji, Amirhossein Jamshidpour and Yasser Zivari.
  • The Iranian judiciary said several employees and visiting family members died as a result of Israel’s attack on Evin Prison on Monday.
  • Iran’s Health Ministry said 610 people were killed in Israeli strikes over the past 12 days.
  • Israel’s military said a soldier, identified as 18-year-old Eitan Zacks from Beersheba, was killed “as a result of a missile launched from Iran”. Three others died in that attack.
  • Israel said its airspace has reopened for emergency flights, while Israel’s flag carrier said it will boost its flight schedule to bring tens of thousands of Israelis back from abroad.
  • Syrian airspace reopened after being temporarily closed, Syrian media reported.
  • Oman Air said its flight operations also returned to normal following cancellations last night over regional tensions.
  • Other countries in the region, including Qatar and Iraq, also reopened their airspace, with flight operators confirming their plans to resume services on Tuesday.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Trump said he was “really unhappy” with Israel for violating the truce. He called on Israel to stop dropping bombs and to “bring your pilots home, now!”
  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared the “end of the 12-day war” with Israel to be a “total victory”.
  • Pezeshkian also said his country is ready to resolve issues with the US based on international frameworks.
  • Pezeshkian called Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani a day after an Iranian attack on the US military base Al Udeid and expressed “regret”, noting Qatar and its people were not the target of the attack.
  • Netanyahu said that Trump “expressed his immense appreciation” for attacking Iran, and that Israel “achieved all of the war’s goals”.
  • Netanyahu also said: “We rose like a lion, and our roar shook Tehran. This war will be studied in all the armies of the world. We destroyed the critical facilities in Arak, Natanz, and Isfahan.”
  • Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that it was a “great honour” to “destroy” Iran’s nuclear facilities, and then “stop the war”.
  • Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is more determined to hold on to its nuclear programme after the 12-day Israeli assault, saying “our scientists made massive sacrifices and even lost their lives for this goal”.
  • Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, in remarks to Al Mayadeen TV, said that Iran is alert and ready to respond to any attack.
  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels lauded Iran’s “heroic” battle against Israel, with the group’s spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam saying the war was also against “other Western countries that stood with the aggressors”.
  • Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China supports Iran in achieving a “genuine ceasefire” after it condemned the US for striking the country’s nuclear sites.
  • .British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met at the NATO summit in The Hague, saying that it was now “time for diplomacy”, as the fragile ceasefire took hold.

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US-Israel-Iran conflict: List of key events, June 23, 2025 | Israel-Iran conflict News

Here are the key events on day 11 of the Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, June 23:

Fighting

  • Iran has fired ballistic missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the United States’ largest military installation in the Middle East. Doha said the attack was intercepted and there were no casualties.
  • Fellow Gulf countries Bahrain and Kuwait – which also host US facilities – joined Qatar in closing their airspace, then reopened them.
  • Earlier, Israel had struck Tehran’s Evin Prison, notorious for holding political activists. Iranian state television shared surveillance footage of the strike, which reportedly blew the facility’s gate open.
  • Explosions were heard on the western outskirts of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, the Fars news agency reported.
  • Tasnim news agency reported a strike at an electricity feeder station in the Evin neighbourhood in north Tehran.
  • Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country had attacked “regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran”, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centres.
  • Israel also carried out a strike on the Fordow enrichment facility, a day after the US hit the underground site south of Tehran with so-called “bunker buster” bombs.
  • The Israeli military issued an evacuation threat to residents of Tehran, telling them to stay away from weapons production centres and military bases.
  • Iranian state television said on Monday that the country had targeted the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. It claimed the majority of its projectiles fired since the early hours of the day had successfully reached their targets.
  • Sirens sounded across Israel before noon on Monday, with a large number of impacts recorded in several areas, including the Ashdod area in southern Israel and the Lachish area, south of Jerusalem.

Casualties and disruptions

  • Eleven days into the conflict, large numbers of Tehran’s 10 million population have reportedly fled.
  • After Israel’s strike on Evin Prison, Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster released video showing rescue workers combing the flattened wreckage of a building at the prison, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher.
  • Iranian power company Tavanir said there were power cuts in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
  • In Qatar, prior to Iran’s attack on Al Udeid, the US and the United Kingdom had urged their citizens in the country to “shelter in place”.
  • Britain said on Monday that a Royal Air Force flight carrying 63 British nationals and their dependents out of Israel had left Tel Aviv.
  • A number of airlines, including Kuwait Airways, Finnair and Singapore Airlines, have suspended operations in the Middle East. Air India said it was not only halting operations to the region, but also stopping flights to and from the US east coast and Europe.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Israel and Iran had “fully agreed” a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” to be phased in over a 24-hour period, after which “THE 12 DAY WAR” would be officially over. Iran or Israel have yet to comment on the plan.

  • His announcement came after Iran’s attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Trump thanked Tehran for giving him ”early notice” of the attack, which he described as a ”very weak response” to the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. In a separate post, he thanked the emir of Qatar for his peace efforts.

  • A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the country considered the Iranian attack to be a “surprise”, announcing the situation in the country was safe.
  • Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on his Farsi-language X account: “We have not violated anyone’s rights, nor will we ever accept anyone violating ours, and we will not surrender to anyone’s violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation.”

  • Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement posted by his ministry on Telegram that Iran would be ready to respond again in case of further action by the US.

  • Earlier in the day, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Khamenei, said bases used by US forces “in the region or elsewhere” could be attacked – that evening, Iran targeted Al Udeid in Qatar.
  • Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, pledged that the country would take “firm action” in response to US strikes on key nuclear sites the day before. “This crime and desecration will not go unanswered,” he said on state television.
  • Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, addressed US intervention in the war in a video statement, saying: “Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it.”
  • Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said a parliamentary committee had approved a general plan to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
  • Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the US, the UK, France, Israel and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi were responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and the destruction of infrastructure.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed attacks on Iran as “unprovoked” and “unjustified” in a Moscow meeting with Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
  • Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “Our strategic partnership with Iran is unbreakable,” but was not drawn on the question of whether Iran had requested military help – or whether any help would be forthcoming.
  • After Israel’s attack on Tehran’s Evin Prison, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote “Viva la libertad!”, Spanish for “long live liberty”, on X.
  • French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that the Israeli strike on Tehran’s Evin Prison, which holds some French prisoners, was unacceptable.
  • China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said US credibility was “damaged” after its bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, warning the conflict could “go out of control”, according to the state broadcaster.
  • German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said of Sunday’s US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites: “Yes, it is not without risk, but leaving it as it was wasn’t an option either.”
  • British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country stood ready to “defend our personnel, our assets and those of our allies and partners”.
  • NATO chief Mark Rutte said alliance members had “long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon” and called an Iranian atomic bomb his “greatest fear”.
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to help deter Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and a potential lever for retaliatory action.
  • The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said closing the strait would be “extremely dangerous”.
  • US President Trump posted an online message on oil production to the US Department of Energy, encouraging it to “drill, baby, drill”, and saying, “I mean now.”
  • Reza Pahlavi, the long-exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, but not seen as a player with any real influence in Iran itself, warned the US and Europe not to throw a “lifeline” to Iran’s current leadership. “This is our Berlin Wall moment,” he said in an interview with the AFP news agency.

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Key players tangle at UNSC at ‘perilous turn’ of US-Israel-Iran conflict | Conflict News

Tensions soar at UN as Iran, allies condemn US military action, while US, Israel reject censure.

The United Nations Security Council has convened an emergency session following US-led strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, prompting sharp rebukes from several member states and renewed calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, as allies Israel and the US lauded the attack.

Russia, China and Pakistan have proposed a resolution demanding an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”, according to diplomats familiar with the draft circulated on Sunday. While the proposal does not explicitly name the United States or Israel, it condemns the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. A vote has not yet been scheduled.

To pass, the resolution requires the backing of at least nine members and no vetoes from the five permanent members — the US, UK, France, Russia and China, which makes it a non-starter since the US will not censure itself.

Speaking to the Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the region stood “on the brink of a deadly downward spiral.”

“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” Guterres said. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation. We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme.”

Acting US ambassador Dorothy Shea defended the military action, stating that Washington had moved to dismantle Iran’s enrichment capacity in order to protect both its citizens and allies.

“The time finally came for the United States, in defence of its ally and our own interests, to act decisively,” Shea told the chamber. “Iran should not escalate… any Iranian attack, direct or indirect, against Americans or American bases will be met with devastating retaliation.”

Iran’s Ambassador Ali Bahreini said the Israeli and US attacks on Iran did not come about “in a vacuum”, adding that they are the result of “politically motivated actions” of the US and its European partners.

He said the US “decided to destroy diplomacy” and pointedly made it clear that the Iranian military will decide on the  “timing, nature and scale” of its response.

Meanwhile, Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said the attacks had made the world “a safer place”, rejecting calls for condemnation. “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us,” he said when asked whether Israel supported regime change in Tehran

China’s ambassador Fu Cong condemned the US strikes and urged restraint. “We call for an immediate ceasefire,” he said. “China is deeply concerned about the risk of the situation getting out of control.”

Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya described the attacks as yet another sign of Washington’s disregard for global norms. “The US has opened a Pandora’s box,” he said. “No one knows what catastrophe or suffering will follow.”

Pakistan’s ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad also condemned the US bombing, calling it deeply troubling. “The sharp rise in tensions and violence as a result of Israeli aggression and unlawful actions is profoundly disturbing,” he said. “Pakistan stands in solidarity with the government and brotherly people of Iran during this challenging time.” This came the day after Pakistan suggested US President Donald Trump be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump’s announcement that American forces had “obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear sites marked the most significant Western military action against Tehran since the 1979 revolution.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, told the Council that while the scale of underground damage remains unclear, impact craters were visible at the Fordow enrichment site. The entrances to tunnels at Isfahan appeared to have been struck, while Natanz — long a target of Israeli sabotage — had been hit again.

Iran has castigated Grossi for being complicit in paving the way for Israel and the US to attack it.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors approved a resolution declaring Iran was not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards the day before Israel launched its initial attack on June 13.

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