BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Wednesday it suspended flights to and from Tehran from April 6 until probably April 11, “due to the current situation in the Middle East”.
Countries in the region and the United States have been on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran in response to a suspected bombing by Israeli warplanes of the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1.
“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.
The spokesperson said the company did not proactively announce the suspension when it went into effect on Saturday.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Israel “must be punished and it shall be” for attacking the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus.
In an apparent response to Khamenei, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel will respond if Iran attacks Israel from its own soil.
The United States and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel are imminent, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday evening, citing U.S. and Israeli security sources.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger flight on Jan. 8, 2020 shortly after it took off from Tehran Airport at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over the killing of a top Iranian Guards commander in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport.
Later, Tehran said that the shooting-down of the Ukrainian 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 U.S. 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 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 in Gaza. Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
