BERLIN/DUBAI, April 10 (Reuters) - Germany's Lufthansa

said on Wednesday it suspended flights to Tehran

because of the situation in the Middle East, where the region is

on alert for possible Iranian retaliation over a suspected

Israeli air strike on Iran's embassy in Syria.

An Iranian news agency briefly stoked tensions further when

it published an Arabic report on social media platform X saying

all airspace over Tehran had been closed for military drills.

The agency then removed the report and denied it had issued such

news.

Countries in the region and the United States have been on

high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran since

April 1 when Israeli warplanes were suspected of bombing the

Iranian embassy compound in Syria.

Lufthansa said it suspended flights to and from Tehran from

April 6 until probably April 11.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle

East and are in close contact with the authorities. The safety

of our guests and crew members is Lufthansa's top priority," a

spokesperson for the company told Reuters.

There was no immediate word from other international

airlines that fly to Tehran.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that

Israel "must be punished and it shall be" for the Damascus

strike that killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps

members.

Among them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in

the Quds Force, an elite overseas unit of the Revolutionary

Guards.

Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike on

Damascus, but the Pentagon has said it was.