Some Venezuelan airlines have continued to operate international routes normally after the United States unilaterally announced a complete closure of Venezuelan and surrounding airspace on Nov.29.
According to a China Central Television (CCTV) reporter who visited Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, some 20 kilometers from capital Caracas, on Friday, only Venezuelan airlines are still operating international flights to and from the port.
Due to visa-free travel for Venezuelan citizens to Colombia, there is very high demand for flights between the two countries. The restaurants and supermarkets in the waiting area have continued to provide services as usual in the evening, and the entire boarding process was orderly.
The overall occupancy rate is around 70 percent, according to the reporter, after a flight of more than three hours to Colombia.
Venezuela is currently actively expanding its international air routes. Media reported on Dec. 8 that Venezuelan Transport Minister Ramon Celestino Velasquez Araguayan announced that within 10 days Venezuelan airlines will have 33 active international routes, expanding from 17 routes earlier this month.
Some Venezuelan int'l flights operate normally after US announces airspace closure
Deliberately targeting civilian service institutions in Iran by the United States and Israel is the biggest operational challenge facing humanitarian workers, according to Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The United States and Israel on Saturday launched strikes against Iran, plunging the war-torn Middle East into a new round of violent conflicts. Iran has retaliated with a series of counterattacks against Israel and U.S. targets across the region.
A large-scale offensive jointly conducted by Washington and Tel Aviv on Saturday struck a girls' elementary school in southern Iran's Minab, home to a military base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and killed over 160 pupils.
"The first attack targeted a girls' primary school in the city of Minab. It was a brutal and sad incident that was unprecedented in the history of humanity. More than 168 children aged 7, 8, and at most 9 and a half years old were martyred. The school was attacked in two phases, and unconventional weapons were used in this assault," Kolivand said.
At least seven hospitals and emergency stations in Iran, including Tehran's Gandhi Hospital, were struck by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Sunday night, causing widespread destruction and casualties.
The Iranian official framed these attacks as a fundamental violation of international laws.
"Our challenges are these direct attacks on the service providers. Just today, five of my colleagues were injured. And this is against humanitarian law, against the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions and against all international laws. One of our challenges is that international institutions are almost ineffective and we do not see any trace of it. That is, we do not feel any vital signs of it. These are our main challenges. We have no internal challenges," he said.
Iranian Red Crescent chief decries US-Israeli attacks on service institutions
