Iran moved Wednesday to temporarily restrict its airspace, halting most flights as unrest inside the country continued and tensions with the United States remained elevated, according to flight-tracking data and official aviation notices.
Tehran issued a Notice to Air Missions shortly after 5 p.m. ET, blocking all air traffic except for international flights entering or leaving Iran with special authorization, FlightRadar24 reported.
The restriction was set to remain in effect for just over two hours, according to the notice.
At the moment the warning took effect, only five aircraft could be seen operating within Iranian airspace, the flight-tracking website showed.
The brief shutdown followed remarks from President Trump indicating that he believed the Iranian government had paused executions of anti-government demonstrators and suggesting that immediate U.S. military action against Iran was unlikely.
“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping. It’s stopped. It’s stopping, and there’s no plan for executions,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“So I’ve been told that a good authority — we will find out about it. I’m sure if it happens, we’ll all be very upset… but that’s just gotten to me, the information that the killing has stopped, that the executions have stopped, they’re not going to have an execution.”
Trump added that he had received information from what he described as “very important sources” inside Iran indicating that the regime was easing its crackdown on protests that have spread across the country.
Around the same time Iran imposed the airspace restriction, the United Kingdom issued a separate advisory warning against “all but essential” travel to Israel, citing heightened tensions across the Middle East.
{Matzav.com}
Make sure the b2 bombers get this memo