Iran reopens airspace after temporary closure forced flights to reroute

Iran reopened its airspace after a nearly five-hour closure amid concerns about possible military action between the US and Iran that forced airlines to cancel, reroute or delay some flights, Report informs via Reuters.

Iran closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 pm ET (2215 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a notice on the US Federal Aviation Administration website.

The notice was removed shortly before 10 pm ET, or 0300 GMT, according to tracking service Flightradar24, which showed five flights from Iranian carriers Mahan Air, Yazd Airways and AVA Airlines were among the first to resume over the country.

At a similar time last week to the airspace closure there had been dozens of planes in the air over Iran, Flightradar24 said.

The temporary closure came as President Donald Trump has been weighing a response to the situation in Iran, which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.

The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.