The Kremlin intends to fill the power vacuum in the Middle East created by the U.S., and, along the way, keep oil prices higher
This week’s stock market and oil price roller-coaster ride, due to U.S.-Iran tensions, isn’t over, even though experts believe that Iran’s retaliation is finished.
More likely, however, is that it is just beginning.
Oil stocks steadied, but airline-related stocks, led by U.S.-led Boeing Company, fell and stayed down amid reports that U.S. intelligence has concluded that the crash in Tehran on Tuesday that killed 63 Canadians and another 113 passengers was an accidental shoot-down by Iranian air defence forces.
The Boeing plane was operated by Ukrainian Airlines, was new, recently inspected and crashed within minutes of takeoff. Iran said it was an accident but then added it would not share the black box data recovered from the scene. That’s highly suspicious in itself. Reports indicate that the U.S. also has satellite and electronic intelligence suggesting that Iran fired one or two missiles at the plane. The U.S. believes this was an accident, a tragic miscommunication, and not a deliberate order by the regime to bring down the plane.
If Iran fails to co-operate, the country’s airspace should be boycotted by all commercial airliners
The Ukrainians have opened a criminal investigation. Canada, along with Britain, Sweden and Germany, should do so too. All had victims onboard. The 63 Canadians on board the flight were going from Tehran to Kyiv then onto Toronto. Ukraine was immediately suspicious, hardly surprising given that one of the biggest airline terrorist attacks by Russian operatives took place in 2014 over eastern Ukraine when Malaysian airlines Flight 17 was shot down out of the sky enroute from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All four Russian operatives were charged with murder in 2019.
There were no Americans on board, but Boeing is a big fat American target. Besides that, the Ukrainian airline is partially owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, a prominent Ukrainian oligarch, with deep ties and citizenship to Iran’s other “Great Satan,” Israel.
If Iran fails to co-operate, the country’s airspace should be boycotted by all commercial airliners, and sanctions placed on the country.
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