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AP Analysis: New Questions Arise as Iran Says It Downed Plane

Associated Press

   DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Iran's acknowledgement that it shot down
   a Ukrainian airliner, killing 176 people, raises new challenges for the
   Islamic Republic both externally amid tensions with the U.S. and
   internally as it deals with growing discontent from its people.

   The country did itself no favors by having its air-crash investigators,
   government officials and diplomats deny for days that a missile downed
   the flight, though a commander said Saturday that he had raised that
   possibility to his superiors as early as Wednesday, the day of the
   crash.

   While its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard took responsibility, the
   same commander claimed it warned Tehran to close off its airspace amid
   fears of U.S. retaliation for Iran's launch ofballistic missiles at
   Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces. That retaliation never came, but the
   worries proved to be enough to allegedly scare a missile battery into
   opening fire on the Boeing 737 operated by UkraineInternational
   Airlines.

   Wider tensions between Iran and the U.S., inflamed after Iran's top
   general was killed in Iraq by a U.S. drone strike January3, have for
   the moment calmed. However, President Donald Trump vowed to impose new
   sanctions on Tehran,and on Friday his administration targeted Iran's
   metals industry, a major employer. Meanwhile, thousands of additional
   U.S. forces remain in the Mideast atop of the network of American bases
   surrounding Iran, despite Tehran's demands that the U.S. leave the
   region.

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