ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s national carrier on Monday suspended its flights to Lebanon, citing security concerns, Iraqi Airways said in a statement, a little over a month after it had resumed services to Beirut following disruptions caused by the Iran war. The decision comes amid renewed escalation between Israel and the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah Movement in Lebanon.
“Iraqi Airways would like to inform its passengers that its flights to Beirut are currently suspended due to the security situation and prevailing conditions in the region, in order to ensure passenger safety,” the statement said.
It added that “these measures are in line with decisions and directives related to aviation safety,” noting that if approval to resume operations is granted by the relevant authorities, “Iraqi Airways will restart flights to Beirut and announce the flight schedule through its official channels.”
The decision came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday issued a joint statement saying they ordered strikes on Beirut's densely populated southern suburb, widely known as Dahiyeh.
"In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist Hezbollah organization and the attacks on our cities and citizens,” the Israeli forces have been instructed to “strike terror targets in Dahiyeh,” the statement said.
Israel has also pursued a ground offensive into southern Lebanon, raising its flag over a medieval castle, the Beaufort, which served as an Israeli base during its two-decade occupation of Lebanese territory in the 1980s and 1990s.
The escalation comes as Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Lebanese group have been locked down in confrontation since early March.
The US and Israel in late February launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran in late February, striking thousands of targets across the country during six weeks of hostilities.
In response, Iran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets in the region, as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
The Iranian response has also included strikes by factions aligned with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, including Hezbollah, which in early March launched an initial attack on northern Israel that was followed by hundreds of Israeli air raids on what it said were targets across Lebanon.
Iran and the US agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks. While the first round of talks concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place.
Simultaneously, US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Lebanon opened in Washington in mid-April, marking the first high-level contact between the two countries since 1993 and leading to a 10-day ceasefire.
A second round followed in late April, and a third in mid-May, during which both sides agreed on a negotiating framework and a 45-day ceasefire extension. However, despite the Israel-Hezbollah truce in Lebanon formally beginning on April 17, it has yet to be observed, with both sides violating it.
Of note, Iraqi Airways’ decision to suspend flights to Beirut comes only after it had resumed the route in late April following disruptions linked to the Iran war, during which Iraq also closed its airspace completely.
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