Dubai’s international airport is gradually resuming flights after a fuel tank fire caused by a drone attack forced a temporary closure and flights to reroute, spotlighting the challenge for airlines grappling with the Middle East crisis.
The US-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week with no end in sight, largely shutting the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flow, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.
The conflict has also thrown global aviation into turmoil, with flights cancelled, rescheduled and rerouted, as most Middle East airspace stays shut over fears of missile and drone attacks.
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Monday’s incident, causing a fuel tank blaze but no injuries, is the third attack on the Dubai airport since Iran launched assaults on Gulf countries on February 28, with strikes Iran says are aimed at the US presence in the region.
Flights in the region are at about half their usual level, although their number has risen from just after the start of the war.
In a statement on X posted by the Dubai Media Office earlier on Monday, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority flagged a “gradual resumption” of some flights to selected destinations.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many scheduled commercial flights were due to depart from the hub, which last year handled more than 1000 flights per day.
“Civil Defence teams have confirmed that the fire in a fuel tank in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport has been extinguished. Cooling operations are now underway,” the media office said in a separate post.
Several allies rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s call on Monday to send warships to escort shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel said on Monday it had drawn up detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war as it pounded sites across Iran overnight.
A number of US partners including Germany, Spain and Italy said they had no immediate plans to send ships to help reopen the strategic waterway, which Iran has effectively shut with drones and naval mines.
“We lack the mandate from the United Nations, the European Union or NATO required under the Basic Law,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin, adding that the US and Israel had not consulted Germany before launching the war.
“That is why the question of how Germany might become militarily involved here does not arise.”
Trump, speaking at a news conference in Washington DC, said many countries had told him they were prepared to help but he voiced frustration with some long-standing allies hosting large numbers of US troops:
“Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters there were detailed operational plans for the next three weeks in Iran, and other plans extending further.
Israel has said it wants to weaken Iran’s capacity to threaten it, striking ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities and the security apparatus, and that it still has thousands of targets to hit.
“We want to make sure that they are as weak as possible, this regime, and that we degrade all their capabilities, all parts and all wings of their security establishment,” Shoshani said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would target US industrial facilities in the Middle East and urged people living near US-owned plants to leave.
