Iran's Foreign Minister condemns US strikes and threatens retaliation
Abbas Araghchi accuses Washington of 'betraying diplomacy' by giving Israel 'green light' to attack Iran's nuclear sites
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Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
US airlines face heightened risks as global carriers bypass Middle East after attacks on Iran
An organisation that monitors flight risks warned on Sunday that U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites could heighten the threat to American operators in the region as some airlines cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Doha. Airlines continued to avoid large parts of the Middle East due to ongoing missile exchanges between Israel and Iran, the latest upheaval to travel in the region. Singapore Airlines said it cancelled scheduled flights from Singapore to Dubai following a security assessment and British Airways cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Doha. But following a barrage of early morning Iranian missiles, Israel has reopened its airspace for six hours on Sunday to bring back those stranded abroad since the conflict with Iran began on June 13. Safe Airspace, a membership-based website run by OPSGROUP, said the U.S. attacks on Iran may increase risks to U.S. operators in the region. "While there have been no specific threats made against civil aviation, Iran has previously warned it would retaliate by attacking US military interests in the Middle East - either directly or via proxies such as Hezbollah," Safe Airspace said. Meanwhile, flight tracking website FlightRadar24, said airlines maintained flight diversions around the region. Its website showed airlines were not flying in the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Syria and Israel. They have chosen other routings such as north via the Caspian Sea or south via Egypt and Saudi Arabia, even if these result in higher fuel and crew costs and longer flight times. Missile and drone barrages in an expanding number of conflict zones globally represent a high risk to airline traffic. In the nine days since Israel launched its offensive against Iran, carriers have suspended flights to destinations in the affected countries, though there have been some evacuation flights from neighbouring nations and some bringing stranded Israelis home. With Russian and Ukrainian airspace also closed due to war, the Middle East region has become an even more important route for international flights between Europe and Asia. In addition to rerouting flights, airlines are also concerned about a potential spike in oil prices following the U.S. attacks, which will increase the cost of jet fuel. In the days before the U.S. strikes, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar and United Airlines did the same with flights to Dubai. Safe Airspace said it was possible airspace risks could now extend to countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "We continue to advise a high degree of caution at this time," it said. RESCUE AND EVACUATION FLIGHTS The BA and Singapore Airline cancellations were only for Sunday, but Singapore cautioned that other flights between Singapore and Dubai may be affected as the situation remains "fluid". BA, which is owned by IAG, said customers scheduled to travel between now and June 24 to Dubai and Doha can rebook on a later flight up to and including July 6, free of charge. Its teams continue to keep the situation under review, it added. Israel's carriers, El Al Israel Airlines, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa, said earlier on Sunday they had suspended rescue flights that allowed people to return to Israel until further notice. Flag carrier El Al said it would also extend its cancellation of scheduled flights through Friday and Israir said it had halted the sale of tickets for all flights through July 7. A spokesperson for Israel's airports authority said the country's main airport, Ben Gurion near Tel Aviv, was expected to reopen for rescue flight landings on Sunday between 1100 and 1700 GMT. The small Haifa Airport serving Israel's north would also be open from 1100 to 1700 GMT. El Al, along with Arkia, Air Haifa and Israir said they would operate at least 10 flights on Sunday starting at 1100 GMT. Tens of thousands of Israelis and others who had booked tickets to Israel are stuck abroad. At the same time, nearly 40,000 tourists in Israel are looking to leave the country, some of whom are going via Jordan's borders to Amman and Aqaba and others via Egypt and by boat to Cyprus. Japan's foreign ministry said on Sunday it had evacuated 21 people, including 16 Japanese nationals, from Iran overland to Azerbaijan. It said it was the second such evacuation since Thursday and that it would conduct further evacuations if necessary. New Zealand's government said on Sunday it would send a Hercules military transport plane to the Middle East on standby on Sunday to evacuate New Zealanders from the region. The government was also in talks with commercial airlines to assess how they may be able to assist, it added. (Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Tim Kelly in Tokyo, Sam McKeith in Sydney and Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Sonali Paul, William Mallard and Clelia Oziel)
Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
Investors brace for oil price spike, rush to havens after US bombs Iran nuclear sites
NEW YORK: A U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear sites could push oil prices even higher and trigger a knee-jerk rush to safety, investors said, as they assessed how the latest escalation of tensions would ripple through the global economy. The reaction in Middle East stock markets, which trade on Sunday, suggested investors were assuming a benign outcome, even as Iran intensified its missile attacks on Israel in response to the sudden, deep U.S. involvement in the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump called the attack "a spectacular military success" in a televised address to the nation and said Iran's "key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated". He said the U.S. military could go after other targets in Iran if the country did not agree to peace. Iran said it reserves all options to defend itself, and warned of "everlasting consequences". Speaking in Istanbul, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran was weighing its options for retaliation and would consider diplomacy only after carrying out its response. Investors said they expected U.S. involvement would cause a stock market selloff and a possible bid for the dollar and other safe-haven assets when major markets reopen, but also said much uncertainty remained. "I think the markets are going to be initially alarmed, and I think oil will open higher," said Mark Spindel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital. "We don't have any damage assessment and that will take some time. Even though (Trump) has described this as 'done', we're engaged," Spindel said. "I think the uncertainty is going to blanket the markets, as now Americans everywhere are going to be exposed. It's going to raise uncertainty and volatility, particularly in oil," he added. One indicator of how markets will react in the coming week was the price of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency and a gauge of retail investor sentiment. Ether was down 8.5% on Sunday, taking losses since the first Israeli strikes on Iran on June 13 to 13%. Most Gulf stock markets, however, seemed unconcerned by the early morning attacks, with the main indexes in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait up slightly or flat. Israel's Tel Aviv main index was at an all-time high. OIL PRICES, INFLATION A key concern for markets centers around the potential impact of Middle East developments on oil prices and thus on inflation. Rising inflation could dampen consumer confidence and lessen the chance of near-term interest rate cuts. Saul Kavonic, a senior energy analyst at equity research firm MST Marquee in Sydney, said Iran could respond by targeting American interests in the Middle East, including Gulf oil infrastructure in places such as Iraq or harassing ship passages through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz lies between Oman and Iran and is the primary export route for oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Kuwait. "Much depends on how Iran responds in the coming hours and days, but this could set us on a path towards $100 oil if Iran respond as they have previously threatened to," Kavonic said. While global benchmark Brent crude futures have risen as much as 18% since June 10, hitting a near five-month high of $79.04 on Thursday, the S&P 500 has been little changed, following an initial drop when Israel launched its attacks on Iran on June 13. Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said oil prices would likely spike before leveling off in a few days as the attacks could lead Iran to seek a peace deal with Israel and the United States. "With this demonstration of force and total annihilation of its nuclear capabilities, they've lost all of their leverage and will likely hit the escape button to a peace deal," Cox said. Economists warn that a dramatic rise in oil prices could damage a global economy already strained by Trump's tariffs. Still, any pullback in equities might be fleeting, history suggests. During past eruptions of Middle East tensions, including the 2003 Iraq invasion and the 2019 attacks on Saudi oil facilities, stocks initially languished but soon recovered to trade higher in the months ahead. On average, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% in the three weeks following the start of conflict, but was 2.3% higher on average two months following the conflict, according to data from Wedbush Securities and CapIQ Pro. DOLLAR WOES An escalation in the conflict could have mixed implications for the U.S. dollar, which has tumbled this year amid worries over diminished U.S. exceptionalism. In the event of U.S. direct engagement in the Iran-Israel war, the dollar could initially benefit from a safety bid, analysts said. "Do we see a flight to safety? That would signal yields going lower and the dollar getting stronger," said Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at IBKR in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It's hard to imagine stocks not reacting negatively and the question is how much." Jack McIntyre, portfolio manager for global fixed income at Brandywine Global Investment Management in Philadelphia, said it was uncertain whether U.S. Treasuries would rally after the U.S. attack, largely due to the market's hypersensitivity to inflation. "This could lead to regime change (which) ultimately could have a much bigger impact on the global economy if Iran shifts towards a more friendly, open economic regime," said McIntyre. (Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Lewis Krauskopf, Suzanne McGee, Saeed Azhar, Matt Tracy, Vidya Ranganathan and Federico Maccioni; Editing by Megan Davies, Peter Henderson, Jamie Freed and Nia Williams)
Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
World awaits Iran's response after Trump says US 'obliterates' nuclear sites
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: The world awaited Iran's response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. had "obliterated" Tehran's key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. With the damage visible from space after 30,000-pound U.S. bunker-buster bombs crashed into the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs. It fired another volley of missiles at Israel that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv. But perhaps in an effort to avert all-out war with the U.S. superpower, it had yet to follow through on its main threats of retaliation against the United States itself - either by targeting U.S. bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies. Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran would consider all possible responses. There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said. "The U.S. showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force," he said. Trump, announcing the strikes in a televised address, called them "a spectacular military success". "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier," he said. Still, his administration stressed that no order had been given for any wider war to overthrow the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979. "This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. "The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme." U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme, adding this had been pushed back by a very long time due to the U.S. intervention. In a step towards what is widely seen as Iran's most effective threat to hurt the West, its parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf where nearly a quarter of the oil shipped around the world passes through narrow waters that Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Attempting to choke off Gulf oil by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite almost certain conflict with the U.S. Navy's massive Fifth Fleet, based in the Gulf and tasked with keeping it open. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a Fox News Sunday interview, warned Iran on Sunday against retaliation for the U.S. strikes, saying such action would be "the worst mistake they've ever made." Rubio separately told CBS's "Face the Nation" talk show that the U.S. has "other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective." He later added: "There are no planned military operations right now against Iran unless - unless they mess around." The U.N. Security Council was due to meet later on Sunday, diplomats said, at the request of Iran, which urged the 15-member body "to address this blatant and unlawful act of (U.S) aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms." BUNKER BUSTERS Israel, which started the war with a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, has long said its aim was to destroy Iran's nuclear programme. But only the United States possesses the massive 30,000-pound bombs - and the huge batwing B2 bombers that drop them - designed to destroy subterranean targets like Iran's uranium enrichment plan at Fordow, built beneath a mountain. Satellite images obtained by Reuters following the attack appeared to show damage both to the mountain above the site and to entrances nearby. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.S. strikes. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. While it is clear that U.S. airstrikes had hit the Fordow site, it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground there, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN. Iranians contacted by Reuters described their fear at the prospect of an enlarged war involving the United States. "Our future is dark. We have nowhere to go - it's like living in a horror movie," Bita, 36, a teacher from the central city of Kashan, said before the phone line was cut. Much of Tehran, a capital city of 10 million people, has emptied out, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape Israeli bombardment. Iranian authorities say over 400 people have been killed since Israel's attacks began, mostly civilians. Iran has been launching missiles back at Israel, killing at least 24 people over the past nine days, the first time its projectiles have penetrated Israel's defences in large numbers. The elite Revolutionary Guards said they had fired 40 missiles at Israel in the latest volley overnight. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people to safe rooms. In Tel Aviv, Aviad Chernovsky, 40, emerged from a bomb shelter to find his house had been destroyed in a direct hit. "It's not easy to live now in Israel (right now), but we are very strong. We know that we will win,' he said. During the past nine days of war, Israel killed much of Iran's military leadership with strikes that targeted bases and residential buildings where senior figures slept. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken openly of the possibility of pressing on until the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers are toppled, while denying that was his primary objective. Trump had veered between offering to end the war with diplomacy or to join it, at one point musing publicly about killing Iran's supreme leader. His decision ultimately to join the fight is the biggest foreign policy gamble of his career. Netanyahu congratulated Trump on a "bold decision". Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also praised Trump, saying the world was now a safer place.
