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In the last few moments, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq and Qatar have all closed their airspaces following the intensification of the conflict between Iran and Israel. On Saturday morning, the United States and Israel launched strikes against several cities in Iran, which was met with retaliatory missiles.
Iran and Israel both closed their airspaces, resulting in heavy disruption. However, this disruption will further intensify – and will have impacts globally – as more and more countries in the region close their airspaces. Iran is now targeting US airbases across the region.
Bahrain’s National Communication Centre confirmed that a missile attack was perpetrated against the service centre of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet located in the country. “The public is urged to follow instructions issued by the relevant official authorities and to obtain information from official sources only,” it said.
It is now emerging that explosions have also been heard in Doha, the BBC reported a moment ago.
The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel and Iran have closed their airspaces at the time of publication. The UAE said in a statement that it had temporarily and “partially” closed its airspace as a precautionary measure. It is worth noting that the country is home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi which are among the busiest airports in the world. This will undoubtedly mean disruption will spread beyond the region’s borders.
Escalations in the conflict have meant alarms were sounding in Bahrain and Qatar. Subsequently, citizens have been asked to shelter in place and the airspace has been closed. Syrian airspace also appears to be largely closed.
The airspace over both countries has already cleared, while at the time of publication flights are still circling over UAE airspace. This is a developing story.
Air India has announced the suspension of all its flights to the Middle East.
In a statement published on social media, Qatar Airways confirmed that it would be suspending all its flights “to, and from, Doha due to the closure of Qatari airspace.”
It added that it was working “closely with government stakeholders and the relevant authorities to support impacted passengers and will resume operations when the airspace re-opens.”
It expects disruption to continue once the airspace has reopened, and has committed to deploy “additional ground staff at Hamad International Airport and other key airports to assist affected passengers.”
Featured image: Emirates
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