German airline Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it had suspended flights to and from Iran's capital, Tehran, probably until Thursday, "due to the current situation in the Middle East."

Meanwhile, an Iranian news agency, Mehr, briefly stoked tensions when it published a report on social media platform X, formerly Twitter,  saying that all airspace over Tehran had been closed for military exercises.

The agency subsequently removed the report and denied issuing such a message.

Tensions between Iran and Israel

Countries in the region and the United States have been on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran in response to the April 1 airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria suspected to have been conducted by Israeli warplanes.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Israel of the airstrike and said it "must be punished and it shall be." 

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would respond if Iran attacked Israel from its own soil.

dh/sms (Reuters, AFP)