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This
is, by far and above, the best, and most balanced commentary I have
heard so far.
Iran Shoots Down Spy Drone, Trump Downplays It, Mainstream Media Wants Trump To Bomb Iran
20
June, 2019
Iran
has shot down a U.S. military drone near the southern coastal
province of Hormozgan, earlier today. The U.S. has hit back
immediately, in a war of words, calling the Iranian action an ‘act
of aggression,’ according to reports.
Tehran
claims the U.S. drone was conducting a ‘spy mission’ over Iranian
territory, but Washington denies this, calling it “an unprovoked
attack”, and insists that their military aircraft was flying safely
in international air space.
Iranian
officials claim that they have destroyed a RQ-4 Global Hawk, but the
U.S. officials claim this was really a variant of the Global Hawk
model, which is a Navy MQ-4C Triton. Unmanned U.S. surveillance
aircraft normally fly at an altitude of circa 60,000 feet, so it is
possible that Iran’s air defense shot down the U.S. drone using a
radar-guided surface-to-air missile – possibly a Russian S-300
system which Iran has in its arsenal, or the Iranian-made Khordad SAM
system.
First footage of Iranian made Khordad missile system shooting down the US surveillance drone RQ-4 Global Hawk inside Iranian airspace.#IranUSTension
Pay attention to this point:
How #Iran home-made missiles costing $2500 detected and downed such a sophisticated US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk drone price tag cost of roughly $123 million higher than the US military's new F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter costs only $89 m?
The
cost of the U.S. aircraft is said to be in the neighborhood of $180
million.
In
response to what it deems a breach of its borders, the Iranian
military spokesman Hossein Salami said that the US has “crossed a
red line”, and that their military is ‘ready for war.’ and that
the drone had been downed because ‘borders are our red line’.
U.S.
Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. military’s
Central Command, refuted claims the drone was flying in Iranian
airspace.
“This
was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in
international air space,” said Urban.
The
incident happens amid rising tension between the US and Iran, as war
hawks in Washington continue to build their case for Iran’s
alleged “aggressive behavior” in the region.
Oil
Price
The
markets reacted today as oil
prices jumped 3%, with Brent crude futures up $1.93, or 3.1
percent, at $63.75 a barrel around 0650 GMT, after rising as high as
$63.88, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures up to
$1.73, or 3.2 percent, at $55.49 a barrel. Al Jazeera reportsthe
geopolitical context:
Oil prices had risen earlier in the day supported by signs of improving demand in the US, an agreement between Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers on a date for a meeting to discuss output cuts and signs that the US and China were resuming talks to resolve a trade war that is threatening global growth.
“The geopolitical side is the wild card and can’t be predicted, not just the Iran concerns but also the trade meeting between” US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Phin Ziebell, a senior economist at National Australia Bank.
In
an alleged media misstep, Iranian state affiliate broadcaster IRNA
(Islamic Republic News Agency) is said
to have released an image on social media purporting to show
the U.S. drone falling from the sky, but it was later revealed that
the image was two years old depicting a previous incident in Yemen
(see images below).
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES.
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