U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to downplay Iran’s shootdown of a U.S. drone, saying it likely was an error by “a general or somebody,” as both sides said they had evidence to prove the location of the craft when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.

 

 Trump’s remarks to reporters at the White House on June 20 came hours after he had taken a harsher tone, writing in a tweet that “Iran made a very big mistake.”

 

 He was then asked whether the United States would strike Iran in retaliation, "You'll soon find out," he said.

 

 In his later comments, the U.S. president said that "I think probably Iran made a mistake -- I would imagine it was a general or somebody that made a mistake in shooting that drone down."

 

 "We had nobody in the drone. It would have made a big difference, let me tell you, it would have made a big, big difference" if the aircraft had carried a pilot, Trump said as he met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House.

 

 "It's hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth," he added. He suggested it could have been carried out by someone who was acting "loose and stupid" and characterized the incident as "a new wrinkle...a new fly in the ointment."

 

 Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) early on June 20 said it had shot down a U.S. "spy" drone that had turned off its tracking equipment as it flew over the southern province of Hormozgan -- saying the flight was a clear crossing of "our red line."

 

 Iran's Foreign Ministry has condemned what it called a “provocative” incursion of the country’s airspace.

 

 But the U.S. military said the surveillance aircraft had been flying over the Strait of Hormuz in international waters when it was shot down.

 

 Late on June 20, the Pentagon released an image it said showed the flight path for the drone, but it did not immediately provide a detailed explanation of the photo.

 

 Iran, meanwhile, said it has "irrefutable evidence" that the drone was in its airspace at the time.

 

 "The evidence is clear and irrefutable, especially since some remains from the drone were found in Iranian waters," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

 

 Despite the rising tensions, U.S. officials, including Trump, and Iranian leaders have insisted they do not want to start a military conflict in the Persian Gulf.

 

 U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on June 20 he was worried that Trump could "bumble" into a war with Iran. He added that there must be a public debate and a congressional decision on funding before any military operation could be launched.

 

 "I told the president that these conflicts have a way of escalating," Schumer told reporters after meeting with officials at the White House.

 

 "The president may not intend to go to war here, but we're worried that he and the administration may bumble into a war.”

 

 Recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near the Strait of Hormuz have also heightened tensions in the region, with Washington and its ally Saudi Arabia blaming Iran for the incidents. Tehran denies any involvement.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Reuters, dpa, and AFP </s> Iran says it shot down American drone; U.S. Army denies Iran’s state news agency says the drone – identified as ‘RQ-4 Global Hawk’ – was shot down when it entered the country’s airspace over the province of Hormozgan.

The U.S. military spokesman: ‘No U.S. aircraft were operating in Iranian airspace today.

The U.S. military did not fly over Iranian airspace on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, after a news website run by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said a U.S. “spy” drone was shot down over the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan

“No U.S. aircraft were operating in Iranian airspace today,” Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

“It was shot down when it entered Iran’s airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in the south,” the Guards’ website added.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can fly at high altitudes for more than 30 hours, gathering near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather, maker Northrop Grumman says on its website.

Urban declined further comment. The U.S. military has in recent days confirmed an attempt by Iran to shoot down a U.S. drone last week as well as a successful shootdown of one on June 6 by Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen.

Tension between Iran and the United States has spiked since last year when President Donald Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and reimposed sanctions on the country.

Concerns about a military confrontation between Iran and the United States have mounted since attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week and four tankers off the United Arab Emirates on May 12, both near the Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit for global oil supplies.

The United States and its regional ally Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran for the incidents. Iran has denied responsibility.

To counter Iran’s threats, the U.S. military has sent forces, including aircraft carriers, B-52 bombers and troops to the Middle East. However, Trump said he does not seek war with Iran.

Iran said last week that it was responsible for the security of the Strait of Hormuz, calling on American forces to exit the Gulf.

In protest at Trump’s “maximum pressure”, in May Tehran said it would start enriching uranium at a higher level unless other European signatories to the deal protected its economy from the U.S. sanctions within 60 days.

State news agency IRNA even identified the drone as an “RQ-4 Global Hawk </s> DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - Iran's top military spokesman said all the country's drones had returned safely to base, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, after President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy ship had "destroyed" one.

"All drones belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz ... returned safely to their bases after their mission of identification and control, and there is no report of any operational response by USS Boxer," Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior armed forces spokesman, was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

Trump said on Thursday that the drone had flown to within 1,000 yards (914 metres) of the U.S. warship Boxer and had ignored "multiple calls to stand down" in the latest episode to stir tensions in the Gulf. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Jan Harvey) </s> Iran denies US destroyed an Iranian drone near Persian Gulf

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is denying a U.S. warship destroyed an Iranian drone in the strategic Strait of Hormuz after it threatened the ship.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted on Friday: "We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else."

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in New York for U.N. meetings, said there's "no information about losing a drone."

President Donald Trump on Thursday said the USS Boxer took defensive action after an Iranian drone closed to within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored multiple calls to stand down.

The incident marked a new escalation of tensions between the countries, less than one month after Iran downed an American drone in the same waterway and Trump came close to retaliating with a military strike. </s> 'No doubt about it,' Trump says as Iran disputes his report of drone downing 



DUBAI/WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said there was "no doubt" the U.S. Navy had brought down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz this week while Tehran showed video footage that it said disproved the incident even happened.

Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, told reporters at the White House they were certain the USS Boxer warship had downed an Iranian pilotless aircraft on Thursday at the Gulf's strategic waterway.

Speaking of Iran, he said the United States hopes "for their sake they don't do anything foolish. If they do they will pay a price like nobody has ever paid a price."

Bolton said: "There's no question that it was an Iranian drone and the USS Boxer took it out yesterday."

But Iran said all of its drones were accounted for, amid growing international concern that both sides could blunder into a war in the strategic waterway.

Iran's state television broadcast a video showing aerial views of ships that it said disproved the U.S. assertion. The television station said a drone had captured the footage, which came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and that timing notations indicated the pilotless aircraft was still filming after Washington said it had been downed.

The episode is the latest test of nerves around the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint for oil tankers. Oil prices rose on Friday because of the tension.

Despite tough talk on both sides and an Iranian downing of a U.S. drone in June, Washington and Tehran have so far shown restraint.

Trump announced on Thursday the Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, had destroyed an Iranian drone because it had flown to within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of the ship in a "provocative and hostile action."

A U.S. official said the drone was brought down by electronic jamming.

Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior Iranian armed forces spokesman, was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying there was no report of any "operational response" by the USS Boxer.

"All drones belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz ... returned safely to their bases after their mission of identification and control," he said.

Iran and the United States are in a series of disputes over issues including security in the Gulf, Tehran's nuclear ambitions and U.S. sanctions.

Relations worsened last year when Trump abandoned a 2015 international nuclear deal between world powers and Iran. Under the pact, Iran agreed to restrict nuclear work, long seen by the West as a cover for developing atomic bombs, in return for lifting sanctions. Economic sanctions have since been imposed again, badly hurting Iran's economy.

Tehran on Thursday signaled a willingness to engage in diplomacy with a modest offer on its nuclear work - ratification of a document prescribing more intrusive nuclear inspections if Washington abandoned its sanctions.

A senior Trump administration official dismissed the offer by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Zarif appeared to have no decision-making ability and that Washington "would not consider anything from him serious," the official said.

Asked whom the United States would need to hear from in order to have negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, the official said: "I would say the supreme leader or the president."

Trump remained open to negotiations with Iran without preconditions on its nuclear program and will maintain a tough economic sanctions regime on Tehran in the meantime, the official said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she was concerned about the situation in the Gulf.

"You can't look at this region without being concerned at the moment," she said at a news conference. "Every opportunity for diplomatic contact should be attempted to avoid an escalation."

In the latest development in a standoff between Iran and Britain that has also stoked Gulf tensions, Gibraltar's supreme court granted a 30-day extension to allow authorities to detain the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 until Aug. 15.

The United States has blamed Iran for a series of attacks since mid-May on shipping around the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil artery. Tehran rejects the allegations.

The United States has reimposed sanctions to throttle Iran's oil trade and pressure Tehran to renegotiate the accord, discuss its ballistic missiles and modify its regional policies.

The United States is struggling to win its allies' support for an initiative to heighten surveillance of vital Middle East oil shipping lanes because of fears it will increase tension with Iran, six sources familiar with the matter said. </s> Iran shooting down US drone was a big mistake - Trump

Iranian state television said Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shot down a US spy drone over Iranian airspace

Iran has said it had recovered parts of a US spy drone in its territorial waters, after downing the aircraft in a missile strike described by US President Donald Trump as a "big mistake."

Under pressure to respond to the high-stakes incident in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where a series of tanker attacks have sent tensions soaring with Iran, Mr Trump initially struck a combative tone.

"Iran made a very big mistake!" he tweeted in response to news Iran had shot down the Global Hawk surveillance aircraft, which the Pentagon says was above international waters at the time.

"This country will not stand for it, that I can tell you," he repeated later at the White House.

But as the overnight incident whipped up fears of open conflict between the United States and its declared foe Iran, sending crude oil prices up more than six percent, President Trump moved swiftly to dial tensions back down, suggesting the drone may have been shot in error.

Mr Trump said: "I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth,

"I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it".

The president's mixed message left the world unsure what Washington's next move would be.

"You will find out," President Trump said, when asked about possible retaliation.

In Tehran, however, the message came loud and clear.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that parts of the drone had been recovered in Iranian territorial waters, as Tehran moved to bring the incident before the United Nations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

"We don't seek war, but will zealously defend our skies, land & waters," Mr Zarif said.

The Pentagon denounced the strike as an "unprovoked attack" in international air space, claiming the navy drone was some 34 kilometers from Iran when destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.

But the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it brought the drone down as it was "violating Iranian air space" over the waters of Hormozgan province.

Mr Zarif provided coordinates to back the claim.

"At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace," Mr Zarif tweeted.

"It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak

"We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down."

At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak.



We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down. pic.twitter.com/pJ34Tysmsg — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) June 20, 2019

In a letter addressed to the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Iran protested against a "dangerous and provocative act by the US military forces against the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The drone downing came as Iran was already accused by Washington of carrying out explosions on oil tankers in the congested Hormuz area.

Tehran denies being behind the attacks but has frequently threatened to block the sea lanes used by shipping to move much of the world's oil exports.

The commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command, Sean Kido, said that a mine allegedly used in one of the attacks matched Iranian weaponry and that incriminating fingerprints had also been collected.

President Trump has repeatedly said he does not favor war with Iran unless it is to stop the country getting a nuclear weapon, something Iranian leaders insist they are not pursuing.

But critics of the Trump administration say his policy of "maximum pressure" , including crippling economic sanctions, abandonment of a complex international deal to regulate Iran's nuclear activities, and deployment of extra sea, air and land forces to the region, make war ever more likely.

In Washington, talk of war has become part of the already heated atmosphere as Donald Trump's reelection fight starts to gain traction.

A key Republican ally of Mr Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham, said the president's "options are running out."

Asked if he believed the countries were nearing conflict, he replied: "I think anybody would believe that we're one step closer."

"They shot down an American asset well within international waters trying to assess the situation. What are you supposed to do?"

One of President Trump's biggest opponents, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, warned that "there's no appetite for wanting to go to war in our country."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu blasted "Iranian aggression" and said "Israel stands by the United States."

But Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has close relations with Iran's leadership, said that US military retaliation against Iran "would be a disaster for the region."

Vladimir Putin with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R)

Donald Trump was elected in part on promises to end US involvement in wars in the Middle East, but the president has at the same time made clear his unquestioning support for Iran's big rivals in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Mr Trump's arrival in the White House, alongside veteran Mideast hawks like his national security adviser John Bolton, has seen a sharp deterioration in relations with Tehran.

Donald Trump began last May by abandoning and effectively wrecking a 2015 international agreement on bringing Iran in from the diplomatic cold in exchange for verified controls on its nuclear industry.

That has prompted Iran to threaten it will stop observing restrictions agreed to under the deal on enrichment of uranium.

The threat has been seen as an effort to pressure European governments that want to save the nuclear deal to push back against Washington.

The US State Department called that "extortion." </s> US President Donald Trump reportedly approved a missile strike on Iran but changed his mind while the planes were in the air.

Trump allegedly made the decision following an intense meeting at the White House involving national security top brass. It was made in response to Iran shooting down a US done on Thursday. However, Trump was said to have backed down on the decision following advice from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, according to sources. At this stage, it is not yet known why the president reversed the action.

It comes just a day after Trump launched his reelection campaign in Florida. During a speech at the event, he warned that Iran had made 'a very big mistake' by shooting down the drone. When asked by a reporter if he planned a retaliatory strike against Iran, Trump said: "You'll soon find out". At a subsequent press conference, the 45th President of the United States again addressed the issue, saying that he did not believe Iran's actions were intentional.

The averted strike was in response to the downing of the surveillance RQ-4 Global Hawk which Iran says was flying in its airspace - a claim the US denied. Tensions have been rising between the two states since Trump's administration accused Tehran of attacking tankers in the Gulf last week. The Revolutionary Guard said: "It was shot down when it entered Iran's airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in the south." Brigadier General Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, warned against any further aggression and claimed the drone's downing carried a "clear message" to Iran's arch-enemy - the US.

He added: "We do not intend to engage in war with any country, but we are completely ready for the war." The US military said the drone was shot down 17 miles from Iran. Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US military's Central Command, claimed no US aircraft were flying over Iran. He said: "Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false. This was an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace." </s> Donald Trump insisted Friday that reports of the U.S. Navy bringing down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz are accurate – despite the Islamic nation's denials.

'We shot it down,' the president told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that there is 'no doubt about it.'

Trump warned Tehran's mullahs that the U.S. military has 'the most deadly ships ever conceived.'

'And we hope for their sake they don't do anything foolish. If they do, they will pay a price like nobody's ever paid a price.'

National Security Advisor John Bolton said the identity of the drone's owners and operators was not a mystery.

'There’s no question that this was an Iranian drone,' Bolton announced.

The pair spoke at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission.

Iran had accused the U.S. of taking out an American drones by mistake after Donald Trump said the Navy had destroyed an unmanned craft over the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi declared that none of its drones had been destroyed, neither 'in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else.'

'I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) by mistake!' he tweeted on Friday.

That came after the president announced Thursday that an Iranian drone making 'provocative and hostile' maneuvers had been destroyed, in what the Pentagon later said was an electronic warfare attack.

Trump seemed to disagree on Friday, saying the U.S. 'shot it down.'

The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic bottleneck through which a fifth of the world's oil passes each day, and sits partially in Iranian waters.

The president on Thursday called the incident 'the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.'

Iranian armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi also denied the claims Friday, saying: 'Despite Trump's baseless and delusional claims, all of [Iran's] drones... have safely returned to their bases.'

'There have been no reports of a confrontation with the American USS Boxer,' he claimed.

Iran's military recently shot down a U.S. drone that it said was flying in Iranian airspace, firing a strike with a surface-to-air missile.

President Trump called off a planned airstrike at the last moment, saying later that retaliating would have killed approximately 150 people on the ground.

Trump made his announcement Thursday at the beginning of a White House ceremony to mark the return of an American flag that flew from the stern of an American ship in the D-Day invasion.

An hour earlier he had told reporters at the end of a pohto-op with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that 'a big event just happened in Iran. A big event.'

The drone was downed in international waters, according to a Pentagon official.

The increased use of drones by Iran and its allies for surveillance and attacks across the Middle East is raising alarms in Washington, according to a Reuters report this week.

The U.S. believes Iran-linked militias in Iraq have recently increased their surveillance of American troops and bases in the country by using off-the-shelf, commercially available drones.

The disclosure comes at a time of heightened tensions with Iran and underscores the many ways in which Tehran and the forces it backs are increasingly relying on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in places like Yemen, Syria, the Strait of Hormuz and Iraq.

Beyond surveillance, Iranian drones can drop munitions and even carry out 'a kamikaze flight where they load it up with explosives and fly it into something,' according to a U.S. official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Iran now flies two or three drones over Gulf waters every day, the U.S. official estimated, making it a core part of Tehran's effort to monitor the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of carrying out attacks against six oil tankers near the Strait in the past two months, a claim Tehran has denied.

'We have seen an uptick in drone activity in Iraq near our bases and facilities,' the official said. 'Certainly the drones that we have seen are more of the commercial off-the-shelf variant. So they're obviously a deniable type UAV-activity in Iraq.'

In recent weeks, mortars and rockets have been fired at bases in Iraq where U.S. forces are located but no American troops have been injured.

Iraqi militia groups linked to Iran began using drones in 2014 and 2015 in battles to retake territory from ISIS.

These groups received training on the use of drones from members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah, according to Iraqi security officials with knowledge of militia activities.

'Key militia groups have the ability to launch aerial attacks using drones. Will they target American interests? That hasn't happened yet,' said one Iraqi security official.

'They used Katyusha and mortars in very restricted attacks against American interests in Iraq to send a message rather than trying to inflict damage. Using explosive-laden drones is very possible once we have a worsening situation between Tehran and Washington.'

In March, Iran boasted about a complex military exercise involving 50 drones. In a slickly edited video aired on state TV, waves of drones streak across a clear blue sky, bombing buildings on an island in the Gulf.

The show of force was intended to highlight Iran's locally developed UAV program, which it has been building up for several years.

U.S. forces shot down Iranian-made drones in 2017 in Syria, after deeming them a threat to both U.S.-backed forces and their advisers. </s> It’s quite obvious that certain neocon war hawks surrounding President Trump are pushing for a conflict with Iran, but will he take the bait?

Two drones have allegedly been shot down in the past month, the first was said to be an American drone shot down by Iran and the second an Iranian drone shot down by the U.S.

However, there is reason to believe both incidents could have been false flag operations intended to trick President Trump into attacking the Middle Eastern nation.

While discussing the June 20, 2019 incident where Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) supposedly shot down a United States military surveillance drone, President Trump made a possible Freudian slip while talking with Tucker Carlson.

Carlson asked Trump about his last-minute decision to withdraw from a planned strike on Iran in response to the event and POTUS said, “So, we shot down an unmanned drone. They claim it was over their territory, but it wasn’t.”

Despite the president’s potential slip of the tongue, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard did take credit for the June 20 attack.

On Thursday, President Trump told reporters at the White House that American assault ship the USS Boxer had destroyed an Iranian drone that came within 1,000 yards and ignored “multiple calls to stand down.”

“This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions against vessels operating in international waters,” he said.

However, on Friday Iran denied losing the drone and suggested the U.S. may have shot down their own aircraft.

“We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) by mistake!,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote in a Twitter post.

President Trump responded to Araghchi on Friday, saying, “We shot it down!”

National Security Advisor and avid fan of warfare John Bolton also chimed in, adding, “There’s no question that this was an Iranian drone.”

Could Deep State globalists try to derail the Trump presidency by coaxing him into an unnecessary war with Iran?
Iran denies that one of its drones was shot down by the United States on July 18, saying all of their drones "returned to their bases."