Iran Closes Airspace as Israel Launches Attack

February 28, 2026 | 03:26 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta  Majid Akhavan, the spokesperson of the Iran Civil Aviation Organization, announced in an interview with the Mehr news agency on Saturday, 28 February 2026 that "the entire country's airspace has been closed until further notice."

This step was taken after Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran. Several explosions were heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, with thick smoke seen rising in various parts of the city.

A US official told Al Jazeera that the attack on Iran was carried out as a joint military operation between the US and Israel. He added that the joint US-Israeli airstrikes aimed to dismantle Iran's security apparatus.

Mobile phone communications have been disrupted in several areas of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Currently, telephone calls cannot be made. There is a possibility that the internet will also soon be disrupted.

Sirens also rang across Israel, declaring a "proactive alert" state of emergency nationwide, including a ban on educational, meeting, and work activities, except for essential sectors.

The attack occurred amidst diplomatic efforts between US and Iranian officials to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program in Geneva this week.

Did Israel Force Trump's Hand?

Mehran Kamrava, the director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said that although he did not think the US would attack Iran, Israel has been "quite vocal about its intentions to sabotage US-Iran negotiations."

"As it did last June, it appears  to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations between Iran and the US,” Kamrava told Al Jazeera.

“I think [US President] Donald Trump had pushed himself into a corner from which he couldn’t back out. The so-called armada, the massive military build – up, the constant green lights to Israel over the last year and a half, and so I think in many ways, yet again, what we see is the Israelis forced Donald Trump’s hand and he couldn’t really say no to them at this juncture,” Kamrava said.

Read: Breaking News: Israel Launches Attack on Iran

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