{"id":18016,"date":"2026-07-24T12:35:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18016"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:35:41","slug":"new-zealanders-warned-not-to-transit-through-middle-east-as-trump-threatens-further-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18016","title":{"rendered":"New Zealanders warned not to transit through Middle East as Trump threatens further strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">The government is again warning New Zealanders not to transit through the Middle East as\u00a0<a class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/world\/777202\/houthis-target-red-sea-shipping-as-us-hits-iran\">Donald Trump threatens further military strikes on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">The\u00a0<a class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/world\/773974\/trump-threatens-tit-for-tat-strikes-on-iranian-infrastructure-after-houthis-block-red-sea-artery\">US President on Wednesday said<\/a>\u00a0that the United States would bomb Iranian civil infrastructure every time Tehran fires at ships in the Hormuz Strait.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">A Safe Travel advisory issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) said it\u00a0<a class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/business\/772176\/travel-alert-strongly-advises-new-zealanders-to-avoid-middle-east\">advises against all non-essential transit<\/a>\u00a0travel through the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;The security situation in the Middle East remains highly volatile and travellers could be stranded with little warning and few options.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Given this, we advise New Zealanders not to transit the Middle East, including through Dubai or Doha, unless their travel is absolutely essential and there are no other flight routes available through Asia or North America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">The agency said those who decided travelling through the region was necessary should keep transit times to a minimum and be prepared for flight cancellations, delays, and airspace closures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">It also advised New Zealanders in Iran to leave as soon as possible, if it was safe to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">A limited number of flights are still operating from Khomeini International Airport in Tehran but airspace closures could occur at any time, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Land routes out of Iran via Turkey and Armenia are still viable and have been successfully used by other New Zealanders to leave the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Anyone who could not leave Iran should follow the advice of local authorities and move to or remain in a safe place and ensure they have essential supplies such as food, water, torches, batteries or power banks and any medications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">The advisory said there are a number of steps people should take if they are at risk of drone or missile attacks:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal [&amp;_li&gt;ol.list]:!mt-4 [&amp;_li&gt;ol.list]:!pb-0 [&amp;_li&gt;ul.list]:!mt-4 [&amp;_li&gt;ul.list]:!pb-0 [&amp;_li]:!mb-8 [&amp;_ol]:pb-4 [&amp;_ul]:pb-4\">\n<ul class=\"list [&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">\n<li class=\"\">Know how advance warnings are communicated in the area<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Follow all local authority instructions<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Identify the nearest shelter or safest locations<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">If no shelter is available, move to a basement or interior room away from windows<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Avoid any potential target locations, including military sites, airports and oil and energy infrastructure<\/li>\n<li class=\"\">Keep in contact with family and friends where possible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text mb-12 leading-normal\">\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">New Zealanders who need urgent consular assistance should contact the 24\/7 consular emergency line on +64 99 20 20 20.<\/p>\n<p>Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government is again warning New Zealanders not to transit through the Middle East as\u00a0Donald Trump threatens further military strikes on Iran. The\u00a0US President on Wednesday said\u00a0that the United States would bomb Iranian civil infrastructure every time Tehran fires at ships in the Hormuz Strait. A Safe Travel advisory issued by the Ministry of Foreign [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18018,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18016\/revisions\/18018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}