Berlin issued travel warnings for Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the foreign ministry announced after an emergency government meeting.
German nationals were advised to leave Lebanon, while this advice has been in place for Iran since 2022.
The US and Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on Iran on Saturday, which killed Tehran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Â
Iran has since carried out retaliatory missile attacks on US allies in the region, including Gulf states hosting US bases.
Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Israel were among the countries that closed their airspaces to civilian traffic on Sunday, forcing the cancellation of thousands of flights to and from the Middle East.
Notable airlines that cancelled scheduled services included Emirates, Etihad, Air France, British Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa.
Flight tracking site FlightAware said that more than 6,700 flights had been delayed and 1900 cancelled globally as of 10am GMT on Sunday, on top of thousands the day before.
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