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Air France Extends Beirut Flight Suspension Until Sunday

This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Air France Extends Beirut Flight Suspension Until Sunday

This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Air France has extended the suspension of flights between Paris and Beirut until at least Sunday "due to the security situation" in Lebanon.

Air France and its low-cost subsidiary, Transavia, have halted flights to the Lebanese capital since July 29 after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Transavia has also extended the flight suspension until Sunday.

"The resumption of operations will be subject to a further assessment of the local situation," Air France said in a notice on its website posted late Wednesday, AFP reported.

"Air France reiterates that the safety of its customers and crews is its top priority," it said.

Other airlines have also stopped flights to Beirut.

Tensions have soared further in the past week as Iran and its allies vowed revenge for the high-profile killings of Hezbollah's top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, both blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces across the border between Lebanon and Israel.

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Pakistan Says It Will Support All Efforts to Prevent Middle East Escalation

Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Pakistan Says It Will Support All Efforts to Prevent Middle East Escalation

Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Pakistan would support all efforts to prevent war escalating in the Middle East, its foreign ministry said on Friday, as fears grow of a wider conflict involving Israel and Iran.

The Middle East is bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week's killing of senior members of armed groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Tehran has blamed the death of Hamas's political leader on Iranian soil on Israel, which has not confirmed involvement.

The United States has been carrying out round-the-clock diplomacy, urging other countries through diplomatic channels to tell Iran that escalation in the Middle East is not in their interest, according to the state department.

"Pakistan will support all efforts to prevent a war in the Middle East," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at a media briefing. She did not comment on whether Pakistan had been in contact with Washington over the issue.

She denied reports by the Jerusalem Post newspaper that Pakistan was planning to provide Shaheen-III medium-range ballistic missiles to Iran.

Pakistan does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. It has seen a stark improvement in previously rocky ties with neighboring Iran that culminated in tit-for-tat military fire between the two nations in January. Iran's president visited in April and the nations have said they are boosting trade ties and regional cooperation.

Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar had spoken by phone with Iran's foreign minister in recent days, Baloch said, and had attended an emergency meeting convened by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Saudi Arabia this week where he condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza strip and called for a ceasefire and better access for humanitarian aid.

"He also called for preventing further escalation of violence and tensions," she added.

This week a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran was charged in the United States in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, according to the justice department.

Baloch said Pakistan had contacted US authorities and was waiting for more information. She added Pakistan could not determine any individual's nationality without full details.