What Happened: Commercial airliners flying over the wider Persian Gulf face a risk of being "misidentified" amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, AP reported, citing a May 18 warning relayed by U.S. diplomats in the region from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Why It Matters: The U.S. aviation warning underlines the risks that current tensions pose to a region crucial to global air travel.
Background: In 1988, a U.S. warship mistook an Iranian passenger jet for a military plane, killing all 290 people aboard. The United States recently ordered bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf over an alleged, unexplained threat from Iran, raising tensions in the region a year after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Read More:
- The U.S.-Iran Confrontation: How Did We Get Here? (May 15, 2019)
- Iran Is Inching Away From the Nuclear Deal. What Happens Now? (May 8, 2019)
- Iran Faces Bleak Options as the U.S. Turns the Screws (April 24, 2019)
