Tehran airports to shut down on May 4

Tehran, June 3: Tehran's two international airports, Imam Khomeini International and Mehrabad, will be closed to all flights between 1000 hrs ist and 1600 hrs ist tomorrow aviation officials said today.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

''On the anniversary of Imam Khomeini's death there will be no domestic or foreign flights between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

at Tehran airports,'' Rajab Mehrjouee, director of Tehran airports, told the official IRNA news agency.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will address pilgrims at Khomeini's gold-domed mausoleum just south of Tehran tomorrow. It lies on the flightpath of both airports.

Some 8,000 police will be on duty at the shrine.

Khamenei's hand was maimed by a bomb attack in 1981, shortly after he had become president.

Reuters