
Iran partially reopens airspace after ceasefire with Israel
Iran on Wednesday reopened the airspace over the country's east, state media reported, following a ceasefire with Israel that ended 12 days of fighting.
Iran had closed its skies since June 13 after Israel launched a major bombing campaign that prompted Iran to retaliate with waves of missile strikes.
A ceasefire between the two came into effect on Tuesday.
'The airspace over the eastern half of the country has been reopened to international overflights as well as domestic and international flights solely with origin or destination in airports located in eastern Iran,' transport ministry spokesman Majid Akhavan said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
He added that Mashhad airport, which Israel said it had struck during the war, was among the airports that reopened.
Other reopened airports include Chabahar, Zahedan and Jask.
Domestic and international flights in other parts of Iran, including the capital Tehran, 'are not permitted until further notice,' Akhavan noted.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Asharq Al-Awsat
3 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Sees ‘Progress' on Gaza, Raising Hopes for Ceasefire
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict. "I think great progress is being made on Gaza," Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: "Gaza is very close." He linked his optimism about imminent "very good news" to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas's backer Iran to end their 12-day war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack. Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up. "Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours," Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP. He cautioned, however, that the group had "not yet received any new proposals" to end the war. The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing "on the battlefield and via negotiations". - 'No clear purpose' - Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group's October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable. In one of the war's deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441. The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu's coalition government. "I still don't understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time," lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday. The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Younis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement. At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside young soldiers in uniform. One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end. "Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilized," said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel. "I have seen so many kids like me die. It's time for it to stop." The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war. "The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan," the group said in a statement. Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian gunmen during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid. - Gunfire near aid site - Gaza's civil defense agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli "bullets and tank shells" in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip". The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the "weaponization of food" in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations there. The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns. The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points. The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.


Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Early US Intelligence Report Suggests US Strikes Only Set Back Iran's Nuclear Program by Months
A US intelligence report suggests that Iran's nuclear program has been set back only a few months after US strikes and was not 'completely and fully obliterated' as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment. The report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the people, the report found that while the Sunday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, the facilities were not totally destroyed. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House rejected the DIA assessment, calling it 'flat-out wrong.' On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a post on X that 'New intelligence confirms' what Trump has stated: 'Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordo, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do.' Gabbard's office declined to respond to questions about the details of the new intelligence, or whether it would be declassified and released publicly. The office of the director of national intelligence coordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The DIA did not respond to requests for comment. The US has held out hope of restarting negotiations with Iran to convince it to give up its nuclear program entirely, but some experts fear that the US strikes and the potential of Iran retaining some of its capabilities could push Tehran toward developing a functioning weapon. The assessment also suggests that at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved out of multiple sites before the US strikes and survived, and it found that Iran's centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact, according to the people. At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, where US B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, the assessment found. The people said that intelligence officials had warned of such an outcome in previous assessments ahead of the strike on Fordo. The White House pushes back Trump defended his characterization of the strike's impact. 'It was obliteration, and you'll see that,' Trump told reporters while attending the NATO summit in the Netherlands. He said the intelligence was 'very inconclusive' and described media outlets as 'scum' for reporting on it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also at the NATO summit, said there would be an investigation into how the intelligence assessment leaked and dismissed it as 'preliminary' and 'low confidence.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, 'These leakers are professional stabbers.' The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the US and Israeli strikes have 'set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.' It did not give evidence to back up its claim. Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said he has read damage assessment reports from US intelligence and other nations, reiterated Tuesday that the strikes had deprived Iran of the ability to develop a weapon and called it outrageous that the US assessment was shared with reporters. 'It's treasonous so it ought to be investigated,' Witkoff said on Fox News Channel. Trump has said in comments and posts on social media in recent days, including Tuesday, that the strike left the sites in Iran 'totally destroyed' and that Iran will never rebuild its nuclear facilities. Netanyahu said Tuesday in a televised statement: 'For dozens of years I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed ... we brought to ruin Iran's nuclear program." He said the US joining Israel was 'historic' and thanked Trump. Outside experts had suspected Iran had likely already hidden the core components of its nuclear program as it stared down the possibility that American bunker-buster bombs could be used on its nuclear sites. Bulldozers and trucks visible in satellite imagery taken just days before the strikes have fueled speculation among experts that Iran may have transferred its half-ton stockpile of enriched uranium to an unknown location. And the incomplete destruction of the nuclear sites could still leave the country with the capacity to spin up weapons-grade uranium and develop a bomb. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has enriched significant quantities of uranium beyond the levels required for any civilian use. The US and others assessed prior to the US strikes that Iran's theocratic leadership had not yet ordered the country to pursue an operational nuclear weapon, but the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs should it choose to do so. Vice President JD Vance said in a Monday interview on Fox News Channel that even if Iran is still in control of its stockpile of 408.6 kilograms (900.8 pounds) of enriched uranium, which is just short of weapons-grade, the US has cut off Iran's ability to convert it to a nuclear weapon. 'If they have 60% enriched uranium, but they don't have the ability to enrich it to 90%, and, further, they don't have the ability to convert that to a nuclear weapon, that is mission success. That is the obliteration of their nuclear program, which is why the president, I think, rightly is using that term,' Vance said. Approximately 42 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium is theoretically enough to produce one atomic bomb if enriched further to 90%, according to the UN nuclear watchdog. What experts say Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi informed UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi on June 13 — the day Israel launched its military campaign against Iran — that Tehran would 'adopt special measures to protect our nuclear equipment and materials.' American satellite imagery and analysis firm Maxar Technologies said its satellites photographed trucks and bulldozers at the Fordo site beginning on June 19, three days before the Americans struck. Subsequent imagery 'revealed that the tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the US airstrikes,' said Stephen Wood, senior director at Maxar. 'We believe that some of the trucks seen on 19 June were carrying dirt to be used as part of that operation.' Some experts say those trucks could also have been used to move out Iran's enriched uranium stockpile. 'It is plausible that Iran moved the material enriched to 60% out of Fordo and loaded it on a truck,' said Eric Brewer, a former US intelligence analyst and now deputy vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Iran could also have moved other equipment, including centrifuges, he said, noting that while enriched uranium, which is stored in fortified canisters, is relatively easy to transport, delicate centrifuges are more challenging to move without inflicting damage. Apart from its enriched uranium stockpile, over the past four years Iran has produced the centrifuges key to enrichment without oversight from the UN nuclear watchdog. Iran also announced on June 12 that it has built and will activate a third nuclear enrichment facility. IAEA chief Grossi said the facility was located in Isfahan, a place where Iran has several other nuclear sites. After being bombarded by both the Israelis and the Americans, it is unclear if, or how quickly, Isfahan's facilities, including tunnels, could become operational. But given all of the equipment and material likely still under Iran's control, this offers Tehran 'a pretty solid foundation for a reconstituted covert program and for getting a bomb,' Brewer said. Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan policy center, said that 'if Iran had already diverted its centrifuges,' it can 'build a covert enrichment facility with a small footprint and inject the 60% gas into those centrifuges and quickly enrich to weapons grade levels.' But Brewer also underlined that if Iran launched a covert nuclear program, it would do so at a disadvantage, having lost to Israeli and American strikes vital equipment and personnel that are crucial for turning the enriched uranium into a functional nuclear weapon.


Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
A Chilean Cyclist and His Dog Get Caught up in the Israel-Iran War
Diego Haro, a Chilean traveler from one of the world's southernmost towns, never thought biking across Iran with his dog Mirlo would be easy. For all the World Heritage sites, street skewers and breathtaking scenery, there were plenty of downsides to expect if recent years were any guide, including Iranian security forces' increasingly frequent arrests of foreigner tourists and dual nationals on suspicion of espionage and other offenses. Haro, 31, from Chile's remote Punta Arenas, had already biked across 20 countries from Bolivia to Armenia in the last two years. But he said he never imagined that his journey would involve sheltering from Israeli airstrikes that plunged the regional foes into 12 days of open warfare this month. A shaky ceasefire has held since Tuesday. "Traveling is generally a constant source of uncertainty," he told The Associated Press in a video call from Yüksekova, in eastern Türkiye. He fled across the border to Türkiye last Sunday with Mirlo, his 3-year-old mixed breed, seeking safety as Israeli attacks ground on. "There are things that you don't think will happen, but they do," he said. Haro had been traveling in the northern Kurdistan province for around six weeks, sleeping in tents in the countryside or depending on the hospitality of strangers, when, on June 13, Israeli warplanes crossed into Iranian airspace and suddenly struck the country's military and nuclear sites. Having never experienced war, the Chilean recalled his fear as explosions lit up the night sky. "Every night there were explosions," he said. "Mirlo was super scared too." Iran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded, though their casualty figures in the past have downplayed losses. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476. In Israel, at least 28 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Tehran emptied out as the Israeli military issued evacuation orders and Haro scrambled to revise his original plan of reaching the Iranian capital. "The only goal I had in mind was to try to get out of Iran as soon as possible," he said. Since June 13, flights into and out of Iran have been suspended. In hopes of crossing the border on foot, he turned back and headed for Türkiye, cycling over 400 kilometers (250 miles) to reach Urmia, in Iran's northeast. As Iranian authorities began to grasp the extent of the war's damage to their security and military apparatus, paranoia grew over apparent Israeli infiltration. Over 50 people were arrested on suspicion of ties to Israel and charged with "operating drones to film public and strategic sites," the semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported. Haro said he felt he was being watched. One night last week, six gunmen pulled up in an unlicensed vehicle next to him, forced him to get inside and blindfolded him as they took his passport and drove around asking him questions until dawn about why he was in the country, he said. They did not identify themselves, he added. He struggled to explain his worldwide bike tour with his dog as none of them understood English, let alone Spanish. The next afternoon, he got his passport back and was granted permission to leave. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Haro's brief detention. The first thing he did after crossing to Türkiye with Mirlo was buy a SIM card and call his mother, he recalled. Iran's government imposed a nationwide internet shutdown and he hadn't spoken with any friends or family in over five days. "My mom couldn't stop crying," he said.