KLM and Air France droop flights to Middle East as Iran warns Trump any US assault will imply ‘all-out battle’

KLM and Air France have suspended flights to the Middle East after Iran warned that it will treat any US strike as an act of full-scale war.

The comment from Iran came as Washington moved an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets into the region, fuelling fears of a major escalation.

Air France said it will temporarily stop service to Dubai due to the geopolitical situation, and Dutch airline KLM said it would not fly through the airspace of several countries in the region, including Iraq and Iran, according to the Netherlands’ state broadcaster.  

A senior Iranian official issued the latest threat just days before the arrival of the American forces, saying Tehran is bracing for the ‘worst-case scenario’.

The show of force comes almost two weeks after Donald Trump publicly urged Iranian protesters to continue demonstrating against the regime – protests in which thousands have reportedly been killed by security forces – and vowed that ‘help is on the way’.

Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, the official said: ‘This military ‌build-up – we hope it is ‌not intended for real confrontation – but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran.’

He then delivered a warning to Washington, adding: ‘This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this.’

Trump said on Thursday that the US had an ‘armada’ heading toward Iran but insisted he hoped it would not be used, as he renewed his warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear programme.

‘If the Americans violate Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, we will respond,’ the Iranian official said, though he declined to specify what form that response might take.

Following the threats, Air France said it was ‘constantly monitoring the evolution of the geopolitical situation in the territories served and overflown by its aircraft’ to ensure ‘the highest level of safety and security’ for its flights.

‘Air France is monitoring the situation in real time and will provide further updates on its flight schedule,’ the French airline said.

KLM told Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Friday that it had suspended flights until further notice to Tel Aviv, Dubai, Dammam, and Riyadh and would not fly through the airspace of Iraq, Iran, Israel, and several countries in the Gulf.

The airline did not disclose the reason for the suspensions and said it was in touch with Dutch authorities, according to NOS.

The US has repeatedly deployed additional forces to the Middle East during periods of heightened tension, moves often framed as defensive.

However, a major military build-up last year preceded US airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear programme in June, while another surge of forces in the Caribbean came shortly before Washington launched military action against Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.

The rising tensions come as the Pentagon published a new national defence strategy that included a stark assessment of Iran.

The document warned Tehran may once again attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon – something US officials have long accused Iran’s leaders of pursuing.

It also accused Iran of having ‘the blood of Americans on its hands’ and reaffirmed Washington’s support for Israel.

The strategy document stated: ‘Although Iran has suffered severe setbacks over recent months, it appears intent on reconstituting its conventional military forces.

‘Iran’s leaders have also left open the possibility that they will try again to obtain a nuclear weapon, including by refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations.’

It added: ‘Nor can we ignore the fact that the Iranian regime has the blood of Americans on its hands.’

The document concluded that Iran ‘remains intent on destroying our close ally Israel, and that Iran and its proxies routinely instigate regional crises that not only threaten the lives of American servicemembers in the region but also prevent the region itself from pursuing the kind of peaceful and prosperous future that so many of its leaders and peoples clearly wish for’.

It follows weeks of Iran’s bloody crackdown on dissent in the country, the scale of which is just coming into focus despite authorities cutting off the Islamic Republic from the internet and much of the wider world. 

Cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line streets. 

Banks have been torched, their ATMs smashed. Officials estimate the damage to be at least £92.5million, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by the state-run IRNA news agency from over 20 cities.

The number of dead demonstrators reported by activists continues to swell. 

Activists warn it shows Iran engaging in the same tactics it has used for decades, but at an unprecedented scale – firing from rooftops on demonstrators, shooting birdshot into crowds, and sending motorcycle-riding paramilitary Revolutionary Guard volunteers in to beat and detain those who can’t escape.

‘The vast majority of protesters were peaceful. The video footage shows crowds of people – including children and families – chanting, dancing around bonfires, marching on their streets,’ said Raha Bahreini, of Amnesty International. 

‘The authorities have opened fire unlawfully.’

The killing of peaceful protesters – as well as the threat of mass executions – has been a red line for military action for Trump. 

The demonstrations began on December 28 at Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar, initially over the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, then spread across the country.

Tensions exploded on January 8, with demonstrations called for by Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi. 

Witnesses in Tehran said that before authorities cut internet and phone communication, they saw tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets.

As communications failed, gunfire echoed through Tehran.

‘Many witnesses said they had never seen such a large number of protesters on the streets,’ said Bahar Saba of Human Rights Watch. 

‘Iranian authorities have repeatedly shown they have no answers other than bullets and brutal repression to people taking to the streets.’

Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, a deputy interior minister speaking on state TV Wednesday, acknowledged the violence began in earnest on January 8.

‘More than 400 cities were involved,’ he said.

By January 9, Revolutionary Guard General Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the force, went on Iranian state TV and warned ‘mothers and fathers’ to keep their children home.

‘Tonight, you all must be vigilant. Tonight is the night for keeping mosques, all bases everywhere filled with `Hezbollahi,’ Yekta said, using a word for ‘followers of God’ that carries the connotation of fervent supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

Already weakened by the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June, the authorities decided to fully employ violence to end the demonstrations, experts said.

‘I think the regime viewed it as this was a moment of existential threat and that they could either allow it to play out and allow the protests to build and allow foreign powers to increase their rhetoric and increase their demands on Iran,’ said Afshon Ostovar, an expert on the Revolutionary Guard and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

‘Or they could turn out the lights, kill as many people as necessary… and hope they could get away with it. And I think that’s what they ultimately did.’

In Iran, one of the main ways theocracy can squash demonstrations is through the Basij, the Guard’s volunteer arm.

Iranian state media have repeatedly aired images of mosques damaged in the protests without exploring their links to the Basij.

‘Most neighborhood Basij bases are co-located with mosques and most neighborhood Basij leaders are associated with the mosque leadership,’ Ostovar said, adding that demonstrators ‘going after regime targets’ associated with repression would have considered them ‘a legitimate part of it.’

Videos show Basij holding long guns, batons, and pellet guns. Anti-riot police can be seen wearing helmets and body armor, carrying assault rifles and submachine guns.

The videos show police firing shotguns into crowds, something authorities deny despite corpses showing wounds consistent with metal birdshot. 

Scores have reportedly suffered blinding eye wounds from birdshot – something seen in the protests around the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

Iran’s semiofficial ILNA news agency reported that Tehran’s Farabi Eye Hospital, the premiere clinic for eye injuries, called in ‘all current and retired doctors’ to help those injured.

We ‘received accounts that the security forces were just firing relentlessly at protesters,’ said Bahreini of Amnesty International.

‘They’re not just targeting one or two people to create a climate of terror for people to disperse… but just relentlessly firing at thousands of protesters and chasing after them, even as they were fleeing, so that more people were just collapsing to the ground with severe gunshot wounds.

For two weeks, Iran offered no overall casualty figures. 

Then on Wednesday, the government said 3,117 people were killed, including 2,427 civilians and security forces. That left another 690 dead that Pourjamshidian identified as ‘terrorists.’

That conflicts with figures from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which put the death toll on Saturday at 5,137, based on activists inside Iran verifying fatalities against public records and witness statements. 

It said 4,834 were demonstrators, 208 were government-affiliated personnel, 54 were children, and 41 were civilians not participating in protests.

Death tolls in Iran have long been inflated or deflated for political reasons. 

But the fact that Iran’s theocracy offered any death toll – and gave a number beyond any other political unrest to strike the country in the modern era – underlines the scale of what happened.

Traditionally, Iranians hold memorial services for their late loved ones 40 days after their deaths – meaning the country could see renewed demonstrations around February 17. 

Online videos from Behesht-e Zahra, the massive cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran, show mourners chanting: ‘Death to Khamenei!’

Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC show large numbers of cars daily at Behesht-e Zahra’s southern reaches, where those killed in the demonstrations are being buried.

Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist at Tehran’s pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan, recently noted it had been shut by authorities. 

She said journalists were working on stories about Behesht-e Zahra they weren’t able to publish.

‘We send out a message to let people know we’re still alive,’ Mohammadi wrote online. ‘The city smells of death.’

‘Hard days have passed, and everyone is stunned; a whole country is in mourning, a whole country is holding back tears, a whole country has a lump in its throat.’