“NO DEPARTURES AND ARR DUE AIRSPACE RESTRICTION UNTIL FURTHER ADVISE” This was the message received at 3.30 pm GMT on Monday via ACARS (satellite messaging) by hundreds of airliners in the vicinity of Qatari airspace. Speculation had mounted since 12.20 pm GMT when a NOTAM announced that Al Udeid Air …

On 13 June, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a preemptive military campaign aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But with symbolic references to the pre-1979 monarchy embedded in the operation’s name, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly appealing to the Iranian people to “rise up,” observers believed that the …

For decades, preparations simmered. Covert and overt operations, escalating rhetoric, and mutual threats have long defined the standoff between the so-called Iranian axis and Israel. Capitalising on the 7 October attacks by Hamas-led militants, Tel Aviv chose to cut to the chase, launching successive strikes against Iran’s allies and finally …