Iceland Working to Contact Citizens Stranded in Middle East

2026-03-07 - 12:45

Icelandic authorities say they have been unable to make contact with the country’s twenty-six citizens believed to be in areas affected by the conflict in the Middle East. As reported by RÚV, nearly 120 Icelanders who had been in affected regions have already left, booked flights, or indicated they do not plan to depart. What's the Story? 26 Icelanders in Middle East conflict areas have not been contacted 47 people have requested assistance to leave the region Nearly 120 Icelanders have already left, booked flights, or chosen to remain Tehran, Iran. Photo: Amir Pashaei. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Meanwhile, the office confirmed that 47 cases involving people who asked for help to leave the region are still being handled by the ministry’s civil service response team. In its official statement, the ministry said its emergency team emailed citizens in the area before midday on Thursday to ask whether they required assistance. By Friday morning, 150 people had not responded, prompting officials to begin calling everyone on the list to establish the scale of assistance required. So far, 26 people remain unreachable. The ministry has urged anyone who has not yet replied to contact officials as soon as possible. Evacuation Flights Update The authorities regularly receive updates about evacuation flights and share the information with Icelandic nationals in affected areas. Many of the available rescue flights are departing from the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia, as airspace in other parts of the region remains largely closed. Commercial passenger services are also operating from Muscat in Oman and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.