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Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from the Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. Hundreds of thousands of Australians are

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Speaker 1: in the Middle East Golf region at any given time,

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Speaker 1: from tourists to expats, and there are hundreds of thousands

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Speaker 1: more with flights booked for coming months. They're all in

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Speaker 1: the same situation right now, desperate to get home, or

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Speaker 1: at the very least to get answers about what happens

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Speaker 1: now As the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades scrambles

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Speaker 1: to work out who's in the region and who wants out.

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Speaker 1: Expatriate families based in the Gulf are trying to get

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Speaker 1: out by driving to Saudi Arabia and Oman, the Gulf

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Speaker 1: state's furthest from Iran's missile and drone attack systems Emirates,

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Speaker 1: the UAE Airlines centered on Dubai Airport, has restarted some

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Speaker 1: flights as the world's busiest aviation hub recovers from direct

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Speaker 1: attacks by Iran, but there's a huge backlog of travelers

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Speaker 1: both in the United Arab Emirates and around the world

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Speaker 1: whose tree through Dubai are canceled or in serious doubt.

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Speaker 1: The region's other major airlines, Qatar based in Doha and

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Speaker 1: Ettihad based in Abu Dhabi, have also canceled hundreds of flights,

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Speaker 1: and there are calls for their governments to reimburse stranded travelers.

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Speaker 1: Travel insurers won't be compensating anyone whose flight has been

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Speaker 1: disrupted by the conflict that began on the weekend when

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the

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Speaker 1: dual operation. The Americans are calling Operation Epic Fury and

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Speaker 1: the Israelis call Roaring Lion. Insurers also won't cover anyone

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Speaker 1: who takes a trip in defiance of the Australian government's

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Speaker 1: official advice. Right now, the government's Smart Traveler website advisors

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Speaker 1: do not travel to Bahrain, Israel, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Yemen,

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Speaker 1: Lebanon and Iran. In the region, only Jordan, Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: and Oman are listed in the next most dangerous category,

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Speaker 1: with the government advising Australians to reconsider their need to travel.

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Speaker 1: Even when flights do resume, they'll likely become much more expensive.

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Speaker 1: Global oil prices are up four percent in recent days

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Speaker 1: and will go much higher, as Iran claims it will

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Speaker 1: sink any vessel that tries to get through the critical

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Speaker 1: shipping channel of the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the

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Speaker 1: Persian Gulf and its oil supplies with the Arabian Sea

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Speaker 1: at the northern tip of the Indian Ocean. The Strait

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Speaker 1: of Hornmors is critical for ships to load up with

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Speaker 1: oil and gas and get it to the rest of

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Speaker 1: the world. There is another way, pipelines to the Red

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Speaker 1: Sea on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula, which

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Speaker 1: connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Only problem over

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Speaker 1: there are the Iran backed Wofi militia in Yemen, who

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Speaker 1: say they'll stop ships coming through too. So when will

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Speaker 1: it all go back to normal? The Australian government is

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Speaker 1: saying basically it doesn't know, but it's warning Australians its

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Speaker 1: capacity to help is limited if there's an apt war

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Speaker 1: going on. Quantus says travelers should speak to their travel

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Speaker 1: agent about getting a refund, but that's only if the

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Speaker 1: flight hasn't been canceled. If it has, you'll need to

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Speaker 1: talk to the airline directly to try and get a rebooking.

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Speaker 1: The Golf airlines are dealing with damage to their terminals

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Speaker 1: and danger for their own personnel and aircraft and airspace

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Speaker 1: closures that may continue for weeks ahead. Donald Trump says

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Speaker 1: the war could last four or five weeks, or a

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Speaker 1: lot longer. The big test is how long can Iran's

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Speaker 1: missile and drone stockpiles last. They were seriously depleted in

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Speaker 1: its last round of attacks on Israel in twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: and now they're launching up to thirty rockets at a

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Speaker 1: time at Israel in the hope of breaking through the

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Speaker 1: country's iron dome defense system. If the Golf States join

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Speaker 1: the conflict and begin military action of their own against Iran,

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Speaker 1: it'll be months or years before things return to normal.

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Speaker 1: Subscribers to The Australian will be the first to know

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Speaker 1: the answers to all those questions. We've got correspondents around

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Speaker 1: the world, aviation and business experts and the international affairs

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Speaker 1: analysts who can help us all work out what's going on.

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Speaker 1: You can check out those stories live right now at

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Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au and come back to

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Speaker 1: the front the first thing in the morning for our

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Speaker 1: chief international correspondent Cameron Stewart on what these two critical

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Speaker 1: shipping routes mean for all our travel plans, cost of living,

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Speaker 1: mortgages and more. Plus whether Iram's attacks on its own

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Speaker 1: golf neighbors are a deadly mistake that's right here, Wednesday morning,