Iran’s Mehr news agency removes report about closing Tehran’s airspace, denies publishing it

Iranian troops during a military drill in Makran beach on the Gulf of Oman, near the Hormuz Strait. (AFP file photo)

A handout picture provided by the Iranian Army media office on January 19, 2024, shows the launch of a missile during a military drill at an undisclosed location in southern Iran. (AFP)

A tank leaves a warship in an annual drill in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. (Iranian Army via AP)

DUBAI: Iran’s Mehr news agency removed a report on Wednesday from its official channel on X that had said Iran was closing its airspace over the capital Tehran and denied in a new post that it had published any such news.
In the original report posted on X, the semi-official news agency cited the Iranian defense minister as saying that all air traffic had been suspended over Tehran from 2030 GMT on Wednesday “due to military drills.”