Air India flights avoid Iran airspace amid soaring tensions in Middle East

Amid soaring tensions in the Middle East, Air India flights on Saturday avoided the Iranian airspace, according to a TOI report. Air India AI 161, which took off from Delhi at 4.30 am did not overfly Iran and took an alternate route to London.

This comes a day after the Ministry of External Affairs "advised" Indian nationals to not travel till further notice to Iran and Israel - the two countries teetering on the brink of a major military escalation.

Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for an attack on Iran's embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and six other officers.


Israel did not claim responsibility for the airstrike on April 1. But Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel "must be punished and shall be" for an operation he said was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

US president Joe Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack by Iran could come "sooner, rather than later." He spoke to reporters at the White House after a virtual speech to a civil rights conference.

The US rushed warships into position to protect Israel and American forces in the region, hoping to head off a direct attack from Iran on Israel that could come as soon as Friday or Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The moves by the US that are part of an effort to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East came after a warning from a person familiar with the matter about the timing and location of the potential Iranian attack, the newspaper said.

However, a person briefed by the Iranian leadership said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no final decision has been made, the Journal said.