Oil prices rose more than 3% and global bourses fell after a U.S. air strike killed Iran’s top military leader, Qassem Soleimani. The scale of these price moves understates the dangers of such a destabilising act. gfhay writes:
The United States killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and architect of Iran's spreading military influence in the Middle East, in an air strike on Jan. 3 at Baghdad airport. Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said harsh revenge awaited the"criminals" who killed Soleimani. President Hassan Rouhani said the assassination would make Iran more decisive in its resistance to the United States, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards said anti-U.S. forces would exact revenge across the Muslim world.
Iran has been locked in a long conflict with the United States that escalated sharply last week with an attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq by pro-Iranian militiamen following a U.S. air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil was up 3.5% at $68.6 as of 1000 GMT on Jan. 3. The FTSE 100 was down 0.6% and Germany’s DAX 30 was down 1.4%.
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