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Starmer’s slow start in the war against Iran could leave UK playing catch-up

Britain knew that the US was considering attacking Iran from the moment Donald Trump told protesters that “help is coming” in the middle of January. It was obvious to the world that the White House was serious when the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was sent to the Arabian Sea in late January. But as Trump gradually built up his “massive armada”, reinforcing it with a second carrier strike group in mid-February, UK deployments were constrained and limited even though there was a recognition that it was likely allies and bases with British soldiers would be attacked in an Iranian retaliation. In January, Ministry of Defence insiders said they understood that Trump was “giving himself options” – so he could attack Iran if nuclear negotiations were deemed to be failing. Qatar asked the UK to redeploy a joint RAF squadron from Coningsby, Lincolnshire to the country that month, reassurance if an attack on Iran escalated. Six F-35B jets flew to Akrotiri in Cyprus in February, but at that point the UK wanted to keep its military positioning low key. It was clear for weeks that the UK did not want to become part of any initial attack by the US and Israel on Iran, judging it to be illegal under international law, because Tehran posed no imminent threat to the UK. Keir Starmer discussed Iran with Donald Trump in the evening of 17 February. At one point Trump asked if the US could use British airbases to launch bombing missions in Iran, raising the question of what else the US president shared of his military intentions with the prime minister. Starmer refused, prompting an angry post from the US president the following day, complaining that the UK had made “a big mistake” in handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, home to the Diego Garcia airbase. “It may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia”, to attack Iran, Trump said. The start of the US-Israeli attack was dictated by the realisation that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was meeting senior security officials in his compound on Saturday morning. But the realisation that something could be close had prompted the UK to withdraw its embassy staff by Friday. Yet when hostilities broke out, the UK did not seem appropriately equipped. By good fortune, a missile and drone attack on a US naval base in Bahrain narrowly missed where about 300 British personnel were based. A reported three Shahed-type drones were fired at the Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus, one striking a runway. The Akrotiri strike was not serious, but it was embarrassing, prompting the evacuation of nearby villages, families from the base and unsettling the Cypriots. The country’s president asked for naval support from France and Germany as the UK considered its options – before choosing to sending a destroyer on Tuesday. However, the Royal Navy has no warships, apart from a single mine hunter, in the Middle East for the first time since 2019. The last permanently deployed frigate, HMS Lancaster, was retired in December, and the only options were three destroyers out of a total of six capable of tracking and destroying drones. Last month V Adm Steve Moorhouse, fleet commander of the Royal Navy, argued that a reduced British presence in the Middle East was a virtue. Allies in the region wanted “a more modern offer”, which said was “boarding teams to help them to build up their own capabilities”. Now there are worries that Iran’s retaliation against Gulf states could exhaust Patriot and Thaad air defence systems used by countries in the region. Starmer agreed to allow the US to use British bases after all to target Iranian missile silos on Sunday – but by Wednesday officials were briefing the UK might have to go further, and participate more actively in striking targets itself. Meanwhile, HMS Dragon, will take several days to be hauled out of dry dock and be made ready. It will then take the best part of a week to arrive at Cyprus. This may not matter if the drone attacks have stopped, but when it comes to reassuring allies – or the 300,000 Britons living in the Gulf – the UK appears to have struggled to keep up.

‘He was smart and kind and amazing’: four American soldiers killed in Kuwait remembered

More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran on Saturday. The four soldiers were all assigned to the 103rd sustainment command in Des Moines, Iowa, and were “supporting Operation Epic Fury” the Department of Defense said, adding that they “died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack”. The US Department of Defense identified the US soldiers on Tuesday evening as Capt Cody A Khork, 35; Sgt first class Nicole M Amor, 39; Sgt Declan J Coady, 20; and Sgt first class Noah L Tietjens, 42. Two other service members who were killed have not yet been publicly identified. The incident remains under investigation. Since Saturday, when the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran, US and Israeli forces have carried out large-scale strikes across Iran, including striking the compound of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday. Iran has responded with retaliatory strikes, launching missiles aimed at Israel and US military facilities in the region, including in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. When announcing the operation, President Donald Trump said that his administration was “taking every possible step to minimize the risk to US personnel in the region”. But, he added that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties” adding that “that often happens in war”. On Tuesday evening, the US Army Reserve said that the US soldiers who were killed “served fearlessly and selflessly in defense of our nation”. “Their sacrifice, and the sacrifices of their families, will never be forgotten,” said Lt Gen Robert Harter, the chief of Army Reserve and the commanding general of US Army Reserve command, said. “On behalf of the Army Reserve, we express our heartfelt condolences to their families and loved ones.” Here is what we know about the four US service members who have been identified. Sgt Declan J Coady, 20 The US Army Reserve said that Coady, who was posthumously promoted from specialist, was a resident of Des Moines, Iowa, and had enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2023 as a army information technology specialist. During his career, he received awards including the Army Service Ribbon, National Defense Service Ribbon and Overseas Service Ribbon. Coady was a 2023 graduate of Valley high school and was an Eagle Scout, according to a 2020 facebook post from his Boy Scout troop in West Des Moines. In a statement, Drake University in Des Moines said that Coady was a student at the university, studying information systems, cybersecurity and computer science. The school described him as a “a well-loved and highly dedicated” student who had “an incredibly bright future ahead of him”. In a statement shared with the Guardian, Coady’s sister, Keira Coady, said that “as his older sister, I can’t quite comprehend it even now, but the only thing I can think is that I wish I had called him one more time and told him I loved him.” “He was supposed to be 21 on May 5,” she said. “He was just a baby, and will forever be mine and Aidan’s baby brother, Rowan’s older brother, and our parents’ son.” “Trying to find any words at all to describe Declan feels impossible at this moment,” she added. “However, to say what my mom would say is, ‘He was so kind and so amazing, and he was my baby.’” Keira said that growing up, he was part of a swim team, did fencing, and was an Eagle Scout. Outside of that, she said that he loved gaming and that “while in Kuwait he was shipping home pieces so that when he came home he could build his own PC to not only play games but continue working in IT and cyber security.” “Declan was a man of few words more often than not, but if you ever had the chance to talk to him about something he was passionate about you were lucky,” she continued. “He was so smart and could just talk your ear off for hours about what he loved, and while we may not have always known what terms or acronyms he was throwing out we would always listen because we all loved to just hear him speak.” “I wish I could think of words beyond that he was smart and kind and amazing, but even if I were to throw in other words it still wouldn’t quite capture his spirit,” she concluded. “He was truly a rock in all of our lives and was just the most amazing brother and son my family could have asked for.” Capt Cody A Khork, 35 Khork was a resident of Lakeland, Florida, the US Army Reserve said. Khork had enlisted in the national guard as a multiple launch rocket system/fire direction specialist in 2009, before commissioning as a military police officer in the Army Reserve in 2014. Over his career, the Army Reserve said that he deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2018, Guantánamo Bay in 2021 and Poland in 2024. He received numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal. In a statement online, the city of Winter Haven, Florida, said that Khork was a 2008 graduate of Lake Region high school and 2014 graduate of Florida Southern College. “Friends remember Cody as someone who was easygoing, always smiling, and the kind of person who looked out for the people around him – the type of friend who made it feel like no time had passed when you ran into him around town,” the statement added. Florida Southern College said in a statement that they mourned the loss of Khork, who they said was a political science major and member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and “was known among his classmates, professors, and friends for his “leadership, character, and commitment to serving others”. In a statement to the New York Times on Tuesday, his family described him as “deeply patriotic” and as someone who “took great pride in serving something greater than himself”. “He lived with purpose, loved deeply, and served honorably,” they added. “His legacy will endure in the lives he touched, the example he set, and the love of country and family that defined him.” On social media, a friend of Khork’s called him “my best friend, best man, and brother” who he said “gave his life defending our country overseas”. “He’s helped me get through the hardest and lowest parts of my life and been there to celebrate the best” they added. “I’ve watched him support others and myself through the years when he had nothing to his name and never complained about it. That’s just the type of person he was.” “He went out doing what he loved, defending our freedom,” the friend added. Sgt first class Nicole M Amor, 39 Amor, a resident of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, enlisted in the national guard as a automated logistics specialist in 2005 and transferred to the Army Reserve in 2006, the Army Reserve said. She deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2019. Her awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, said in a statement that Amor was an “avid gardener who made salsa from the peppers and tomatoes in her garden with her son, a senior in high school”. “She also enjoyed rollerblading and bicycling with her fourth-grade daughter,” the statement added. Klobuchar also shared a photo of Amor with her husband, Joey. Her husband, Joey Amor told the Associated Press that around a week before the drone strike, Amor had been moved off-base to a shipping container-style building. “They were dispersing because they were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separate places,” he said. He said that he last spoke to her about two hours before she was killed. “She just never responded in the morning,” he said. Sgt first class Noah L Tietjens, 42 Tietjens, a resident of Bellevue, Nebraska, enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2006 as a wheeled vehicle mechanic, the US Army Reserve said. He had multiple deployments, including in Kuwait in 2009 and in 2019, the release said. Tietjens’ decorations included the Meritorious Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal. His twin brother, Nicholas, described Noah to the New York Times as someone who had proven himself to be a “great leader” and said that he was several months away from the end of his deployment in Kuwait. “He just wanted to get there, and get it over with, and get back,” Nicholas said. Tietjens is survived by his wife, Shelly, and their teenage son, Dylan. The Times reported that the family had trained together at Martial Arts International in Bellevue. In a statement on Facebook, the Philippine Martial Arts Alliance wrote that they “are heartbroken to share the loss of our brother, Sergeant First Class Noah Lee Tietjens, who tragically lost his life while serving our country in Kuwait.” “To us, he was Mr Noah, a devoted husband and father, a respected Black Belt in Philippine Combatives and Taekwondo, and an instructor who gave his time, discipline, and leadership to others,” the statement added. “Noah lived the martial arts code. He did not simply wear a Black Belt … he lived it. He led with integrity. He trained with purpose. He taught with humility.”

‘A new normal’: inquiry’s key findings on how Covid changed UK society

The final module in the long-running Covid-19 inquiry has concluded, marking the end of public hearings that began almost three years ago. While other sections of the inquiry have focused on specific areas of the pandemic, such as the care sector, economy, vaccines and political decision-making, module 10 had a broader remit, looking at the overall impact on society and the legacy left behind. “This module is about making a permanent record of the impact of Covid-19, lest people forget, and about recommending improvements for the future,” said Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, at its outset. Here are some of the key things we learned: Mental health Experts talked of how demand for mental health services soared overnight when the lockdown hit, with people who had never previously experienced problems contacting charities such as Mind in huge distress after statutory services closed. Reports of suicide ideation, self-harm, eating disorders and compulsive behaviours all increased. “One of the most astonishing factors we saw, especially with children and young people, was the impact of the rolling news, the constant noise about what was happening, that sense of crisis and emergency,” said Dr Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind. “Every time there was an announcement by a minister, all of the helplines would experience a significant spike in contact with people who were deeply anxious.” Hughes added that its legacy was still being felt today – people’s inability to grieve or hold proper funerals for their loved ones during the pandemic had led to complex grief and post-traumatic stress disorder that “we still as a nation are not really understanding”. Key workers The inquiry heard how key workers across many sectors of society felt ignored and undervalued for their contributions during the pandemic, and that many experienced high levels of abuse and intimidation as they tried to enforce social distancing rules. John Leach, assistant general secretary of the RMT union, which represents transport workers, said verbal and physical abuse was “exacerbated” by the pressures of Covid, and this had continued. “It normalised itself. People were threatened with being spat at on a very regular basis. Bus staff, station staff, train drivers, cleaners, maintenance workers – they became fair game, and it continues to this day, I’m afraid,” he said. The case of Belly Mujinga, a 47-year-old railway ticket office worker who died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty caused outrage in the early months of the pandemic. Joanne Thomas, general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said workers felt “very regularly dehumanised, and that’s an awful feeling when you’re trying to do the best for society”. Homelessness The inquiry heard how the pandemic had a significant impact on housing and homelessness, particularly through the Everyone In initiative, in which councils were asked to house everyone at risk of sleeping rough, often in then empty hotels. The long-term consequence of the policy is that housing people in hotels and B&Bs as emergency accommodation has become normalised. St Mungo’s said the pandemic “normalised temporary accommodation that we’ve never got away from. It increased during Covid-19 and I don’t think we think of that as a short-term blip, it’s the new normal.” Shelter said people were “having terrible mental health crises” in hotels with skeleton staff. “Hotel staff were dealing with people who wanted to take their own life, having severe reactions because they couldn’t obtain drugs or alcohol, and they were completely untrained.” Experts urged that the housing and homelessness sector should be incorporated in emergency planning for future pandemics or national emergencies to prevent similar mistakes. Disabled people Witnesses said the combination of social care services “disappearing overnight” and the atmosphere of fear created by the virus, meant people with disabilities – who were more vulnerable to Covid – were “in a vacuum” without support. Lara Wong, from Clinically Vulnerable Families, said that “extended shielding, repeated disruption to healthcare and prolonged exclusion from everyday activities meant risk management became a constant feature of daily life”. Experts said that as restrictions were lifted, disabled people struggled to return to their normal routine, and the loss of trust has continued. “We found people were very frightened of going out, of non-masked people infecting them, of going to healthcare facilities,” said Prof Nick Watson, chair of disability studies at the University of Glasgow. “When people see messages that there are deaths, but ‘it’s OK; they had underlying conditions’, they feel devalued.” Watson also told of an incident where a young woman with a learning disability had become so anxious that she washed herself every day with bleach and ended up in hospital with scars. “This is the result of high anxiety building up and nobody to talk to,” he said.

Israel launches new wave of strikes on Iran: what we know on day five of war

The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, marking the first US attack on Iranian forces outside of the Middle East. More than 80 people were killed. In a press briefing at the Pentagon, Hegseth declared that “America is winning” and suggested that in under a week the US and Israel “will have complete control of Iranian skies”. Hegseth said the US is able to continue the military action against Iran “for as long as we need to” and Iran “can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did”. Hegseth also said that the leader of the Iranian covert unit that planned to assassinate Trump in 2024 had been killed in the strikes. Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who also spoke at the briefing, said more than 20 Iranian naval vessels have been destroyed and that the US had “effectively neutralised Iran’s major naval presence”. Hegseth said that the US was investigating the deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed a reported 168 people on Saturday, but provided no further detail. “All I can say is that we’re investigating, and that we, of course, never target civilian targets,” Hegseth said. The US and Israel’s airstrikes against Iran continued, with the Israeli military announcing a “broad wave of strikes” against Tehran’s security forces. In turn, Iran upped its retaliatory strikes against Israeli and US targets across the region, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait all announcing Iranian attacks on Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut killed six people and wounded eight. Aramoun and Saadiyat are both towns outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds. Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued an “urgent warning” to residents of a large swathe of southern Lebanon, urging them to evacuate to the north of the Litani River. At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the UN, after heavy Israeli airstrikes. Clerics in Iran said they were close to choosing a successor to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to state media. It has been widely suggested that his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, could replace him. The funeral ceremony for Khamenei that was supposed to take place on Wednesday night in Tehran has been postponed. State media, citing officials, reported that the funeral was delayed to allow time for expanded infrastructure because of “overwhelming demand”. No timeframe was given for when the funeral would take place. The death toll in Iran has reached 1,045, according to Iranian officials. Iran’s foundation of martyrs and veteran affairs said the death toll represented the number of bodies that had been identified and prepared for burial, state media reported.

Israel strikes Tehran and Beirut as Iran vows ‘complete destruction’ in region

Israel has carried out a wave of airstrikes on Iranian security targets and Hezbollah in Beirut as Tehran threatened the “complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure” as the rapidly escalating war entered its fifth day and reached as far as the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka. The Israeli military said it had hit buildings in Iran belonging to the Basij, the volunteer police arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and buildings belonging to internal security forces. Police stations and IRGC headquarters in the Kurdish regions of north-western Iran were also razed by strikes, Kurdish media reported. Iran’s security structures have been instrumental in putting down protest movements in the past, and the US has urged Iranians to overthrow the country’s government. Washington has also reportedly been exploring the possibility of using Kurdish separatist groups to invade parts of Iran and establish a safe zone in the predominantly Kurdish groups in the north-west. The regional dimension of the conflict continued to expand, as Iran struck Gulf states and Hezbollah fired on Israel and Cyprus. Turkey said Nato air defences had intercepted a ballistic missile heading towards its airspace, and the US said it had sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lankan authorities said at least 80 people had been killed and 23 rescued. There were thought have been 180 people on board. Drones were also reported near Baghdad airport and explosions heard in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The death toll in Iran has soared, as estimates of those killed by strikes in the five days of war rose to between 1,045 and 1,500 people. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Wednesday signalled a longer time frame for the conflict than has previously been floated by the Trump administration, saying it could last eight weeks but that the US has the munitions and the equipment to beat Iran in a war of attrition. “You can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,” he said. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo.” It came as the IRGC said it would continue to hit US allies across the region. “The continued mischief and deception by the United States in the region will come at the cost of the complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure,” it said in a statement to state media. Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Wednesday condemned Iran’s attacks on Gulf states in a call with Tehran’s foreign minister - the first high-level contact since the Islamic republic launched its missile and drone campaign – and accused it of seeking to “harm its neighbours and drag them into a war that is not theirs.” Gulf countries have borne much of Tehran’s response since the US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran over the weekend. Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began. Iran also threatened to target Israeli embassies worldwide if Israel struck its embassy in Beirut. Israel’s military gave 24 hours on Tuesday for any “representatives of the Iranian terror ministry” to leave Lebanon before they were targeted. It was unclear if it was referring to Iranian diplomats or other Iranian personnel. Israel issued an evacuation order for all of Lebanon south of the Litani river, which constitutes roughly a quarter of the country. The order was unprecedented and larger in scope than any Israel had previously given, even at the height of its 13-month war with Hezbollah in 2024. Despite the regional escalation, US and Israeli officials said the war was so far going better than they expected, but it was unclear what the end goal of their campaign was as they had offered contradictory aims. The Trump administration has said at various times that its goal was regime change, destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capacity and its navy, preventing it from getting a nuclear weapon, and putting a stop to its support for proxies across the region. In Iran, funeral proceedings for the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were delayed as a result of the bombing. The ceremony, which had been scheduled to start in Tehran on Wednesday morning, was delayed indefinitely. The postponement came as Iran’s senior clerics met to appoint a new supreme leader, a position that functions as both head of state and commander in chief of its vast military apparatus. The reported favoured candidate of clerics was Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Ali Khamenei and preferred choice of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Analysts have said that Mojtaba Khamenei is a hardliner and his choice as successor would signal an increasing role for the IRGC in Iran. His appointment would signify a doubling down on the Iranian regime’s authoritarian response to domestic calls for reform. Frustration with the government had exploded into weeks-long protests earlier in the year, put down by a brutal government crackdown that left at least 7,000 dead. Israel said that whoever became the next supreme leader would be a potential target. “Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people – will be a target for elimination,” the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X. Israeli authorities said Iran launched missile barrages at Israel, though most missiles were intercepted and no casualties were recorded. Hezbollah also continued targeting Israel, shooting salvoes of rockets and suicide drones at military bases and gatherings of troops in northern Israel. Hezbollah media also said it had struck three Israeli Merkava tanks that entered southern Lebanon, and downed an Israeli drone in Lebanese airspace. In response, Israel carried out wide-ranging airstrikes across Lebanon, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut, with explosions rattling the capital into Wednesday morning. Israel also struck a hotel without warning in Hazmieh, south-east of Beirut, about 700 metres from the presidential palace. Lebanon’s health ministry announced that six people were killed in the strikes, bringing the total death toll since Monday to more than 50. At least 58,000 people were displaced around the country by the strikes, and a state of panic descended on the country, where rumours of evacuation orders resulted in people fleeing from certain areas and buildings en masse, mostly erroneously.

How the US-Israeli war on Iran created a massive hole in global airspace

A war engulfing the Middle East has cleared the region’s skies, forcing airlines to make drastic rerouting plans and leaving a massive void in usually busy global airspace. With Israel and the US bombing Iran day after day – and Tehran responding with waves of missiles and drones attacks – airlines have been forced to divert their passenger jets away from the Gulf or risk a catastrophic accident. How did the airspace close? The world’s airspace is divided into Flight Information Regions (FIRs), which broadly follow international borders. Governments are usually responsible for the regions above them, providing air traffic services. In an extreme situation, like a regional war, authorities will alert aircraft that they are restricting or closing their FIRs by issuing a notification called a Notam, or Notice to Air Missions. Multiple FIRs in the Middle East have been closed since bombing began, creating a 2.8m sq km (1.08m sq mile) gap: It is not just governments that cause empty skies. Airlines make decisions on where not to fly based on a number of factors, including warnings from the countries where they are registered (such as the UK for British Airways or India for Air India) and whether their insurers will cover a flight over risky areas. Teams of dispatchers constantly monitor events to ensure safe routes. “In the end, the decision about whether a piece of airspace is safe to fly your passengers through it is that of the airline and the airline’s dispatchers, depending on the level of risk,” says the former British military pilot and aviation expert David Learmount. This explains the situation in the largely empty airspace over Lebanon, which is being pounded with Israeli attacks. While Lebanon’s FIR is not technically closed, most airlines will not risk flying there. What have airlines done? There have been significant changes to major Middle Eastern routes that connect Europe, Africa and Asia. When bombing began on Saturday, airlines were able to immediately start rerouting, like a flock of birds, as there has been contingency planning for years, in which Middle Eastern routes avoiding certain hotspot countries were already planned out. In many cases, jets would have had these routes pre-programmed into their navigation systems. Two major rerouting options have emerged for airlines – one that skirts north into the Caucasus but below Ukraine’s closed airspace and the other that funnels air traffic south through Egypt, but also Saudi Arabia and Oman, which are experiencing intermittent attacks. These corridors are absorbing displaced traffic but it is also creating a chokepoint, which explains why delays and cancellations are building up. “This problem is not getting better, it’s getting worse,” said Learmount. “You can see the patterns of the way aircraft are going. The northern one is a bottleneck of narrow airspace that routes below southern Russia and Ukraine, and it really entails going through Afghanistan, which is not a very friendly place. Or there is the option of going through southern Saudi Arabia. The airlines don’t really have a choice.” Why are some flights operating? Hub airports in the region, including the world’s busiest airport by international transits, Dubai, have been largely shuttered for days. Local carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are deeply affected. However, limited operations have begun to resume for repatriation and essential transit. This can happen under strict conditions. For example, the Emirates FIR is partially closed, but flights can operate with special permission. This is why occasional flights can be seen flying in seemingly closed airspace on flight tracking websites. Oman’s airspace is also remaining open, despite several attacks. What is the impact? Delays, cancellations and huge financial costs. Here is a graph showing the extent of the impact on major operators in the region: Steve Fox, the director of operations control at the UK’s leading provider of air traffic control services, Nats, said in a blog post that the “huge black hole” in Middle Eastern airspace was creating a situation in which airlines had “significantly longer routings, flight times and fuel uplifts”. All this costs money, and there has been a sell-off of airline stocks. What seems certain, Fox wrote, “is that things will be uncertain for some time to come”.