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MIDDLE EAST

Germany’s Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines stop using Iran airspace

German airline Lufthansa said Friday its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace as it extended a suspension on flights to and from Tehran amid soaring Middle East tensions.

Published: 13 April 2024 09:18 CEST
A person walks past a parked Lufthansa airplane at Frankfurt international airport.
A person walks past a parked Lufthansa airplane at Frankfurt international airport. Lufthansa and subsidiary Austrian Airlines have suspended all flights to and from Iranian capital Tehran. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

“Due to the current situation, Lufthansa is suspending its flights to and from Tehran up to and including Thursday, 18 April,” a company spokesperson said Friday.

“The airline is also no longer using Iranian airspace.”

Its subsidiary Austrian Airlines followed suit.

The flights to the Iranian capital have been suspended since April 6.

Lufthansa did not outline the immediate reasons for the suspension.

In a statement, Austrian Airlines cited “the current situation in the Middle East”.

“For Austrian Airlines, the safety of its passengers and crews has top priority. The situation in the Middle East is being evaluated on an ongoing basis. To this end, Austrian is in close contact with the authorities”.

The move comes after Iran blamed arch-foe Israel for a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, and threatened reprisals.

Israel has stepped up strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the war in the Gaza Strip began in October.

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BERLIN

Police ban pro-Palestinian congress in Berlin

Police interrupted and cancelled a controversial pro-Palestinian conference in Berlin less than an hour after it started on Friday, citing concerns about anti-Semitic statements.

Published: 13 April 2024 09:15 CEST
Police ban pro-Palestinian congress in Berlin

Officers initially halted the congress because one of the speakers was subject to a ban on political activity in Germany, police wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police did not give the name of the speaker, but participants in the congress wrote on X that it was Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta.

Police then later wrote on X that they had banned the remainder of the conference, which was due to last until Sunday.

“There is a risk that a speaker who has already made anti-Semitic or violence-glorifying public statements in the past will be invited to speak again,” they said.

The conference had been heavily criticised before it began and did not disclose its location until Friday morning due to security concerns.

Berlin police on Friday said they had dispatched 930 officers, including reinforcements from other regions of Germany, to secure the event.

On the congress website, the organisers denounce “Israeli apartheid and genocide” and accuse Germany of “being complicit”.

Kai Wegner, the mayor of Berlin, said on X he found it “intolerable” that the congress was taking place in Berlin.

“Berlin does not tolerate anti-Semitism, hatred and incitement against Jews,” he wrote.

The organisers on Friday wrote in a Telegram post that Ghassan Abu Sittah, a Palestinian doctor specialising in plastic and reconstructive surgery, had been denied entry into Germany to attend the conference.

The outbreak of the war in Gaza has roiled Germany, where Berlin’s staunch backing for Israel has prompted protests that pro-Palestinian voices are being marginalised.

The conflict erupted after an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7 in which around 1,160 people were killed, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel afterwards vowed to eradicate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. More than 33,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed as a result, according to the Gaza health ministry.

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