Iran reopens airspace to domestic, international flights

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday announced that it has reopened its airspace that it had shut down on June 13 due to the war with Israel, state media reported.

“The Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports, along with airports in the north, east, west, and south of the country, have been put back into operation and are ready to provide flight services”, the official IRNA news agency said.

Domestic and international flights will be operated from all airports in the country, except for Isfahan and Tabriz airports, during the day from 5 am to 6 pm, authorities said. Also, immediately after the infrastructure of Isfahan and Tabriz airports is ready, these two airports will also join the country’s air transport network, IRNA report stated.

JUST IN: Iran announces opening of its airspace after war. pic.twitter.com/RYUMDHles3

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Meanwhile, the United States on Thursday issued a new wave of sanctions against Iranian oil exports, since a ceasefire between Israel and Iran came into effect last month, AlJazeera reported. Among those targeted by the sanctions are Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said and his United Arab Emirates-based company, which the US accused of smuggling Iranian oil by blending it with Iraqi oil, the report stated.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that “Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities.”

In June this year, Iran shut its airspace entirely last month after Israel and the US launched a wave of air strikes, prompting Iranian retaliatory missile fire. On June 13, Israel had attacked Iran, killing top Iranian military and security officials in targeted strikes. Iran retaliated on the same day, targeting sites in Israeli-occupied territories with missiles and drones.

On June 22, US joined the Israeli campaign and struck three Iranian nuclear facilities — Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow. Iran responded a day later by launching missiles at the United States’ largest military base in West Asia, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces Central Command in Qatar. A day after that, on June 24 a ceasefire between the two countries was reached.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon in a recent assessment has said that Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon following the US strike on its nuclear facilities is “closer to two years” away. When asked what the latest intelligence might show, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the administration’s stance is unchanged that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely obliterated,” ABC News reported.

Iran had been involved in “indirect negotiations” with the United States over its nuclear program and US and international sanctions on Tehran when Israel attacked. New talks were due to take place shortly but were effectively canceled when the Israeli attacks began war began.Italy and Oman had hosted earlier rounds of the indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States.

International Atomic Energy Agency.(IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said last week that he believed Iran could begin enriching uranium in a matter of months. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran has rejected the European Union’s latest effort to start negotiations aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear program. (ANI)