Airspace closed, US personnel moved amid fears of attack on Iran

Washington, DC: Iran closed its airspace on Thursday and the United States began withdrawing personnel from its bases in the Middle East amid concerns about possible military action over deadly protests that have swept across Iran.

With Iran’s leadership trying to quell the worst domestic unrest the Islamic republic has faced, Tehran is also seeking to deter US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to intervene on behalf of anti-government protesters, with its foreign minister telling US media no one would be hanged, amid concerns of imminent executions that had prompted a warning from Trump.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US was pulling personnel from key bases as a precaution after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbours that it would hit American bases in retaliation for any US strike.

“All the signals are that a US attack is imminent,” one Western military official said. “But that is also how this administration behaves to keep everyone on their toes. Unpredictability is part of the strategy.”

Qatar said drawdowns from its Al Udeid air base – the biggest US base in the Middle East – were “being undertaken in response to the current regional tensions”.

Britain has also withdrawn some personnel from an air base in Qatar ahead of possible US strikes and temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran, withdrawing its staff there amid security concerns. Italy and Poland have also urged their citizens to leave Iran.

Meanwhile, airlines had to cancel, reroute or delay some flights early on Thursday after Iran closed the airspace around its capital, Tehran, for almost five hours before dawn. Flight tracker FlightRadar24 showed aircraft skirting around the country and Iranian airspace almost empty of civilian airplanes at 11.15am AEDT.

Earlier, Trump said that he had been told “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran had stopped, citing “very important sources on the other side”.

“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping – it’s stopped – it’s stopping,” Trump said. “And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or executions – so I’ve been told that on good authority.”

He said he would “find out” later if it was true, but he didn’t explain how. “I hope it’s true,” he said. “Who knows?”

When asked if that meant he was not planning to take any action against the Iranian government, Trump said: “We’re going to watch it and see what the process is. But we were given a very good statement by people that are aware of what’s going on.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Fox News “there is no plan for hanging at all” and that it was “out of the question”.

A relative of 26-year-old Iranian protester Erfan Soltani, who was facing “imminent” hanging, also said his execution had been postponed but that Solani has not been released.

Trump has been briefed on a range of options for military strikes in Iran, including non-military sites, Bloomberg reported, citing a White House official. And earlier, two European officials said US military intervention could come in the next 24 hours. An Israeli official also said it appeared Trump had decided to intervene, though the scope and timing remained unclear.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the unrest against clerical rule.

Iran and its Western foes have both described the unrest, which began two weeks ago with demonstrations against dire economic conditions and rapidly escalated in recent days, as the most violent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installed Iran’s system of Shi’ite clerical rule.

An Iranian official has said more than 2000 people have died. A rights group put the toll at more than 2600.

Iran has “never faced this volume of destruction”, Armed Forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, blaming foreign enemies.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described “the most violent repression in Iran’s contemporary history”.

Iranian authorities have accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest, carried out by people it calls armed terrorists, and activists warned that hangings of detainees could come soon.

In comments seen as a direct challenge to Trump, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s judiciary chief, said the government must act quickly to punish more than 18,000 people who have been detained during the protests, through rapid trials and executions.

“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly,” he said on Wednesday, Tehran time. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.”

The security force’s crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2586, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tehran had asked US allies in the region to prevent Washington from attacking Iran.

“Tehran has told regional countries, from Saudi Arabia and UAE to Turkey, that US bases in those countries will be attacked” if the US targets Iran, the official said.

Direct contacts between Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have been suspended, the official added.

An internet blackout has hampered the flow of information from inside Iran.

The government’s prestige was hammered by a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign last June – joined by the US – that followed setbacks for Iran’s regional allies in Lebanon and Syria. European powers restored UN sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme, compounding the economic crisis there.

The unrest on such a scale caught the authorities off guard at a vulnerable time, but it does not appear that the government faces imminent collapse, and its security apparatus still appears to be in control, one Western official said.

The authorities have sought to project images showing they retain public support. Iranian state TV broadcast footage of large funeral processions for people killed in the unrest in Tehran, Isfahan, Bushehr and other cities.

People waved flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and held aloft signs with anti-riot slogans.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, an elected figure whose power is subordinate to that of Khamenei, told a cabinet meeting that as long as the government had popular support, “all the enemies’ efforts against the country will come to nothing”.

State media reported that the head of Iran’s top security body, Ali Larijani, had spoken to the foreign minister of Qatar, while Iran’s top diplomat Araqchi had spoken to his Emirati and Turkish counterparts. Araqchi told UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed that “calm has prevailed”.

Reuters, AP, Bloomberg

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