Big Qantas call as world prepares for attack
Qantas has made a major call as the US has reportedly rushed warships into position amid spiralling fears of a major escalation in the Middle East.
The US has reportedly rushed warships into position in a bid to protect Israel and American forces in the Middle East — as fears of a major escalation in the region spiral.
It is understood Israel is preparing itself for a direct attack from Iran within days or even hours.
If that was to happen it would trigger a major military response from the Jewish state and risk a regional war in the Middle East.
Qantas’ Perth to London route changed
Qantas has been forced to redirect its non-stop route from Perth to London to avoid flying over parts of Iran and the Middle East due to concerns over the tensions.
QF9, usually a 17-hour journey direct from Perth to London, will now stop in Singapore to allow the aircraft to carry a full load of passengers and refuel for an alternative path. The return flight, QF10, will still be able to operate as a direct flight on an alternative path due to prevailing winds.
“We’re temporarily adjusting the flight paths for our flights between Perth and London due to the situation in parts of the Middle East,” a Qantas spokesman said.
“We’ll reach out to customers directly if there’s any change to their booking.”
US sends in ships
The US military has repositioned two destroyers. One was already in the region and another that was redirected there, the Wall St Journal reports. An official told the newspaper at least one of the vessels carried the Aegis missile-defence system.
American F15-e fighters have also been moved from RAF Lakenheath in the UK to the Middle East, according to military blogger OSINTdefender.
The US will try to to intercept launches at Israel if possible, CNN reports.
Biden’s chilling warning
US President Joe Biden saying he expects Iran to attack Israel “sooner than later”.
The chilling warning came after Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.
As talks for a truce and hostage release dragged on, fears that Iran could soon launch an attack on Israel prompted the United States to announce it was sending reinforcements to the Middle East as a deterrent.
Biden said he expected Iran to strike Israel, but warned it against attacking the US ally in retaliation for the April 1 strike on its Damascus consulate.
Israel said it had strengthened air defences and paused leave for combat units, following a deadly April 1 air strike that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus.
Iran blamed its arch foe Israel, which has stepped up strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the Gaza war began.
The White House said on Friday that the threat from Iran remained “real”.
Asked what his message was to Iran on striking Israel, Biden said: “Don’t”.
“We are devoted to the defence of Israel, we will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said.
A defence official said the Pentagon was “moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces.”
Biden sent the head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, to Israel for urgent talks on the threat from Iran.
After meeting Kurilla on Friday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel and the United States stood “shoulder to shoulder”, despite recent differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza.
“Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true — they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties,” Gallant said.
Washington, which has had no diplomatic relations with Tehran since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, also asked its allies to use their influence with Iran to urge restraint, the State Department said.
After calls with his Australian, British and German counterparts Thursday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said: “Iran does not seek to expand the scope of the war.”
But he added that it felt it had no choice but to respond to the deadly attack on its diplomatic mission after the UN Security Council failed to take action.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at Israeli artillery positions Friday, a bombardment it said was in response to Israeli strikes in the south.
The Israeli army said approximately 40 launches were identified, some of which were intercepted. “No injuries were reported,” it added.
US stocks were volatile on Friday over the geopolitical tensions as Wall Street investors get skittish.
Market watchers cited worries about an imminent attack on Israel by Iran.
After spending the entire session in the red, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.2 per cent, or 475 points, at 37,983.24.
The broad-based S & P 500 dropped 1.5 per cent to 5,123.41, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.6 per cent to 16,175.09.
France warned its nationals against travelling to Iran, Israel, Lebanon or the Palestinian territories, after the US embassy in Israel announced it was restricting the movements of its diplomats over security fears.
German airline Lufthansa said its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace as it extended a suspension of flights to and from Tehran.
In their October attack, Hamas militants seized about 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli army says are dead.
The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for “widespread” sexual violence during the October 7 attack.
The bloc said fighters from the two militant groups — already on the EU’s terrorism blacklist — “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war”.
Washington has ramped up pressure on Netanyahu to increase aid flows to Gaza in the face of UN warnings of imminent famine.
The Israeli army said that an undisclosed number of aid trucks had been allowed to enter Gaza Thursday through a newly opened border crossing into the north of the territory.
“The first food aid trucks entered through the new northern crossing from Israel into Gaza yesterday,” the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees Palestinian civil affairs, COGAT, said.
Despite repeated AFP requests for comment, Israeli authorities did not disclose the exact location of the new crossing, which Israeli media reported to be close to the Zikim kibbutz.
Gallant had trumpeted the new crossing on Wednesday, promising to “flood Gaza with aid”, but on Thursday the UN Security Council said “more should be done”.
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