The US has held out a warning that commercial airliners flying over the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman could face the risk of being “misidentified” even as tensions between the US and Iran continued to escalate on Saturday.
Coming at a time when Lloyd’s of London has also warned of increasing risks to maritime shipping in the region, thewarning relayed by US diplomatic posts from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) underlined the risks the current tensions pose to a region crucial to global air travel.
The FAA order to pilots, relayed on Saturday by US diplomats in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, said that all commercial aircraft flying over the waters of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman should exercise caution and needed to be aware of “heightened military activities and increased political tension”.
This presents “an increasing inadvertent risk to US civil aviation operations due to the potential for miscalculation or misidentification,” the FAA said, adding that aircraft flying over the region could experience inadvertent GPS interference and other communications jamming, which could occur “with little to no warning”.
The FAA said its warning applied only to US carriers, US registered aircraft and US pilots, but said it did not apply to foreign carriers or US pilots flying foreign registered aircraft or for foreign carriers.
However, air travel in the Gulf remains unchanged for now, says aviation analyst Alex Macheras. “There are no restrictions affecting airlines operating to or from the area,” Macheras told reporters.
The Gulf is a major gateway for global air travel what with the Dubai International Airport in the UAE, home to Emirates airlines, bieng the world’s busiest for international travel, while long-haul carriers Etihad and Qatar Airways also operate in the region, with flights going in and out of Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Concerns about a possible conflict between the US and Iran have flared since the White House sent a warship and bombers to the region to counter Tehran’s alleged threat to attack American forces or interests in the region.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump made a decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and impose wide-reaching sanctions on Tehran.
Meanwhile, close on the heels of the US ordering nonessential diplomatic staff out of Iraq and Exxon Mobil evacuating all its foreign staff members out of Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield and flying them out to Dubai, Britain has also raised the threat level for UK forces and diplomats in Iraq and even asked British-Iranian dual nationals not to travel to Iran.
In another development, authorities alleged that a sabotage operation targeted four oil tankers off the coast of the UAE, and Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a crucial Saudi oil pipeline.
Saudi Arabia directly blamed Iran for the drone assault, and a local newspaper linked to the Al Saud royal family has even called for the US to launch “surgical strikes” on Tehran.
Earlier this week, Iran announced it would begin backing away from terms of the deal, setting a 60-day deadline for Europe to come up with new terms or it would begin enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels.
Tehran has been claiming it does not seek nuclear weapons, though the US and Israel fear its programme could allow it to build atomic bombs.