ANKARA: Turkish-owned carriers Turkish Airlines and Pegasus have suspended flights to Iran until November 1, local media said on Wednesday, as Iran braces for a promised retaliatory attack by Israel.
Both airlines have canceled flights to multiple Iranian cities including the capital Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan for “security reasons,” Turkish broadcaster NTV reported.
The firms have yet to confirm the decision on their websites and social media.
But Turkish Airlines travel to Iran was showing as “canceled” on the website of Istanbul’s airport, while Pegasus closed online bookings to Iran.
Iran has been bracing for retaliatory attack vowed by Israel after Tehran launched a barrage of around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1.
Turkish Airlines in August canceled night flights to Tehran, as fears mounted of an escalation in the Middle East, without officially announcing the decision.
Several carriers including German group Lufthansa have stopped flying to Tehran and the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Turkish Airlines, Pegasus halt flights to Iran until Nov 1
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Turkish Airlines, Pegasus halt flights to Iran until Nov 1
- Both airlines have canceled flights to multiple Iranian cities including the capital Tehran
- Turkish Airlines travel to Iran was showing as “canceled” on the website of Istanbul’s airport
Hezbollah's Hashem Safieddine, heir apparent to Nasrallah, killed in Israeli attack, group says
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine had sat on the group's Jihad Council - the body responsible for its military operations
BEIRUT: Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli attack, the group said Wednesday.
Hezbollah confirmed that Safieddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Safieddine had been running Hezbollah alongside its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem since Nasrallah's assassination and was expected to be formally elected as its next secretary general, although no official announcement had yet been made.
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine had sat on the group's Jihad Council - the body responsible for its military operations. He was also head of its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah's financial and administrative affairs.
Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the year of hostilities with Israel that ultimately led to his death, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
His killing further erodes the group's top leadership as Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon's south, eastern Bekaa Valley and southern suburbs of Beirut - all Hezbollah strongholds - and the group's fighters seek to push back Israeli ground incursions.
Sirens sound across Tel Aviv as projectiles are intercepted near Blinken’s hotel
- Blinken urged Israel to use its recent tactical victories against Hamas to seek a war-ending deal
- Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting ceasefire
TEL AVIV: Air raid sirens echoed across Tel Aviv on Wednesday as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to end a visit. Smoke, apparently from an intercepted projectile, could be seen in the sky above the hotel where Blinken was staying.
Blinken urged Israel to use its recent tactical victories against Hamas to seek a war-ending deal and bring back dozens of hostages, before leaving Wednesday for Saudi Arabia as part of his 11th visit to the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Both sides appear to be dug in. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization postponed the third phase of a polio vaccine campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the current conditions made it “impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination.”
Western diplomat says foreign forces an option in Lebanon after truce
- “What is needed right now is a ceasefire and a presence trusted by both sides — this could be the Lebanese army with international forces,” the diplomat told AFP
- “Partners of Lebanon have already been supporting the Lebanese army and are looking very concretely into how they can support it further”
BEIRUT: Western countries have floated the idea of deploying international forces to Lebanon alongside the country’s army in case of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, a Western diplomat said Wednesday.
Some 10,000 peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are already deployed in the country’s south, but the diplomat said a separate multi-national troop deployment was under consideration.
“What is needed right now is a ceasefire and a presence trusted by both sides — this could be the Lebanese army with international forces,” the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive.
“Partners of Lebanon have already been supporting the Lebanese army and are looking very concretely into how they can support it further... in the context of a ceasefire and long-term diplomatic agreement,” the diplomat added.
After nearly a year of war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon last month, vowing to secure its northern border under fire from Hezbollah, ramping up air strikes on the group’s strongholds and sending in ground troops.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the deployment of only Lebanese government forces UNIFIL peacekeepers in south Lebanon, has come under fire for its limited implementation.
Lebanese media outlets have reported discussions on bolstering the UN resolution’s implementation, dubbing such an option as “1701-plus.”
On a visit to Beirut on Monday, US envoy Amos Hochstein said that “both sides simply committing to 1701 is just not enough.”
“We have to put things in place that would allow for confidence that it will be implemented for everyone,” he added.
The Western diplomat told AFP that “the push toward a 1701-plus is a reflection of the reality that neither side implemented” the resolution.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said this month that Lebanon was ready to bolster the army in the south after any ceasefire was reached.
UNIFIL, set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon, has accused Israel’s military of “repeatedly” and “deliberately” firing on its positions in recent weeks.
Hezbollah, founded after Israel invaded and besieged Beirut in 1982, is the only group that refused to give up its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war, doing so in the name of “resistance” against Israel.
A UN-mandated multinational force including contingents from the United States and France deployed in Lebanon after the 1982 invasion, but the mission was targeted by two deadly attacks that killed almost 300 personnel.
Iran strike will show your force, Israel’s defense chief tells pilots
- Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, Tehran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months
- “After we attack in Iran, they will understand in Israel and elsewhere what your preparations have included,” Gallant said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Air Force crews on Wednesday that after striking in Iran, the world will understand Israel’s might and its enemies will learn a lesson, according to a video and an X post published by his office.
Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, Tehran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months.
“After we attack in Iran, they will understand in Israel and elsewhere what your preparations have included,” Gallant told the crews in the video, which his office said was filmed at Hatzerim Air Base.
On X, Gallant added: “In my conversation with them I emphasized — after we attack Iran, everyone will understand your might, the process of preparation and training — any enemy that tries to harm the State of Israel will pay a heavy price.”
The Middle East has been on edge in anticipation of the Israeli retaliation for Iran’s attack in which around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel.
In the past few weeks Israel has intensified its offensive against Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza and its Iran-backed ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The war was triggered a year ago by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Washington is seeking to head off further widening of the conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.
Germany’s Baerbock says arms exports to Israel pose ‘dilemma’ amid risks to international law
- She made no indication that Germany was reconsidering its longtime policy of supplying arms to Israel
- Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week said Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest Western allies, would continue to provide such military aid
BEIRUT/BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister said on Wednesday Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah attacks but supplying it with weapons had posed “a dilemma” amid concerns over international law violations.
Annalena Baerbock spoke after arriving in Lebanon for talks on how to defuse escalating Israel-Hezbollah hostilities, five days after the UN said its peacekeepers had been Targeted by Israeli forces in south Lebanon’s conflict zone.
“On the one hand, Israel is attacked every day and not supporting it would mean that people are not (being) protected ... On the other, it is also Germany’s responsibility to stand up for international humanitarian law,” Baerbock said.
She made no indication that Germany was reconsidering its longtime policy of supplying arms to Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week said Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest Western allies, would continue to provide such military aid.
Baerbock said Israel had the right to defend itself against Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah but also a responsibility to ensure it adheres to international humanitarian law.
Baerbock spoke to journalists in Beirut after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah who has been engaging in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
The UN mission in Lebanon said last week its outposts near Lebanon’s border with Israel had come under several “deliberate” Israeli attacks and that efforts to help civilians in villages in the war zone were being hampered by Israeli shelling.
“Any deliberate attack on UN peacekeepers violates humanitarian law,” said Baerbock.
Israel says UN forces in south Lebanon have effectively provided a human shield for Hezbollah fighters and has told UNIFIL to evacuate peacekeepers for their own safety — a request that it has refused.
Baerbock said the key to achieving peace is the full implementation of the 18-year-old UN Resolution 1701, which entails a Hezbollah withdrawal behind Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces back from the “Blue Line” demarcating the border.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has a crucial role in maintaining stability in the region, and all parties involved must protect UNIFIL soldiers, she added.
Baerbock was set to have a video conference with UNIFIL Commanding General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz later in the afternoon.
“Our common message to the people of Lebanon is that we will not look away, we will not leave them alone,” Baerbock said.
“We are working on a diplomatic solution that respects the security interests of both Israel and Lebanon,” she added.
Germany’s DPA news agency said Berlin approved arms exports to Israel worth around 31 million euros ($34 million) over the past eight weeks, more than twice as much as in the first 7-1/2 months of this year.
