The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered U.S. airlines to avoid Iranian airspace as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran after a $130 million military done was shot down over the Gulf of Oman.
Heightened military activities in the region “present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations and potential for miscalculation or misidentification,” when flying above waterways in the area, the FAA said. “The risk to U.S. civil aviation operation is demonstrated by the Iranian surface-to-air missile shoot-down of a U.S. unmanned aircraft.”
International carriers including British Airways, Germany’s Lufthansa, Netherlands-based KLM, Singapore Airlines, and Malaysia Airlines have also rerouted flights to avoid the conflict zone, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. military officials said the downed drone, the Navy version of the RQ-4A built by Northrop Grumman, was in international airspace when it was fired on, a statement the Iranian government disputed. The U.S. was planning a military strike Thursday in retaliation, but President Trump said he called it off after learning as many as 150 people would be killed.
….proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
An American attack that left casualties wouldn’t be proportionate to firing on an unmanned drone, Trump said on Twitter. “I’m in no hurry,” he added. “Our military is rebuilt, new and ready to go.”
Washington has been at odds with Tehran since Trump took office, with the president pulling out of an Obama-era agreement intended to keep the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons and imposing sanctions on its exports instead. The standoff has pushed crude oil prices to $57.56 as of Friday, as traders speculated that Iran’s oil supply might be cut off, forcing its customers to seek crude elsewhere.
The country has 155 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, about 13% of the total held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Pentagon said Monday it would send 1,000 more troops to the Gulf region after explosions on tankers owned by Norwegian and Japanese firms in the Gulf of Oman, almost exactly one month after four other vessels were struck in the same waterway.
The U.S. has rejected criticism that it’s instigating a military conflict, however. “President Trump does not want war, and we will continue to communicate that message while doing the things that are necessary to protect American interests in the region,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on June 13.