Tehran airports resume operations after cancelling, diverting flights for safety post Israel 'drone strikes'

After a brief suspension following ‘drone attacks’ by Israel, Tehran’s two major airports resumed flights on Friday.

“Flights through Imam Khomeini and Mehrabad airports have resumed,” IRNA news agency reported.

With reports of ‘Israeli drones’ hitting in Iran late on Thursday and explosions heard in the centre of the country, several commercial flights diverted their routes on Friday.

Flights took sudden sharp turns

According to flight paths shown on tracking website Flightradar24, some of Emirates and Flydubai aircrafts that were flying over Iran early on Friday made sudden sharp turns away from the airspace.

“Flights over Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran cities have been suspended,” state media reported.

Iranian officials said its air defence shot down several drones, but there had been “no missile attack for now” on the country.

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The state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran fired air defense batteries on Friday morning across several provinces after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan.

Several drones “have been successfully shot down by the country’s air defence, there are no reports of a missile attack for now,” Iran’s space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian says on X.

The alleged attack comes less than a week after Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles in a retaliatory strike after a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria.

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Most of the drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.

Israel had said it was going to retaliate against Iran’s April 13 missile and drone attack.

On Thursday, Iran told the United Nations Security Council that Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests” as the UN secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril.”

With inputs from agencies