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Stramed, President Trump said Friday that there was “no doubt” that the U.S. military shot down an Iranian drone after denials from Tehran and threatened to respond to any further provocations from the country.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump maintained his Thursday statement that the United States shot down the drone as a defensive action after the aircraft ignored calls to stand down. “They shot down the drone,” he said, adding that Washington will respond to any further provocations.
“We have the greatest people in the world, we have the greatest equipment in the world, we have the greatest ships — the most deadly ships, we don’t want to have to use them, but they’re 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,” he said.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, added that “there’s no question that this was an Iranian drone,” which he said presented a threat.The president also said that he was not concerned that the incident may set off a clash with Iran. Iran on Friday denied Trump’s claim and said the drone was not Iranian.
The U.S. military on Thursday shot down the drone after the aircraft came within “threatening range” of the amphibious ship USS Boxer in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Pentagon statement.
Trump said at the time that the drone “was immediately destroyed,” and that it was “the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.”
The incident threatens to inflame already strained relations between Washington and Tehran, which worsened last month after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone it said was flying over its airspace.
Trump nearly launched a military strike in response, but later said he called it back at the last minute when he decided the estimated death toll would have been too high.
A U.S. official also told reporters on Friday that the United States will destroy any Iranian drones that fly “too close” to its ships in the strait and has evidence that the drone was Iranian, Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump, speaking at the White House, said the USS Boxer shot down the drone, and he condemned Tehran for what the Pentagon says was a “threatening” act.
“The U.S. reserves the right to defend our personnel, our facilities, our interests,” Trump said, “and calls upon all nations to condemn Iran’s attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce.”
Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman says the drone “approached the Boxer and closed within a threatening range” at roughly 10 a.m. local time. The warship was conducting a planned transit through the strait at the time when the fixed-wing, unmanned aircraft approached.
The Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, is among the growing military assets the U.S. has deployed to the region following a series of attacks and attempted attacks that Washington pins squarely on Tehran and its proxies. The Pentagon is considering dispatching ships to escort merchant vessels amid what it considers a threat from Iran.
Thursday’s incident comes weeks after Iran shot down a U.S. spy drone it says was operating in Iranian territory. The U.S. disputes the claim, and Trump ultimately backed down on retaliating for fear of unnecessarily escalating the potential conflict.
Iran announced Thursday its forces stopped a ship it says was smuggling fuel earlier this week. The U.S. believes Iran unlawfully seized the vessel, based in the United Arab Emirates, one of Tehran’s regional rivals.
U.S. officials say they are unsure whether an oil tanker towed into Iranian waters was seized by Iran or rescued after facing mechanical faults as Tehran asserts, creating a mystery at sea at a time of high tension in the Gulf.
The MT Riah disappeared from ship tracking maps when its transponder was switched off in the Strait of Hormuz on July 14. Its last position was off the coast of the Iranian island of Qeshm in the strait.
Iran says it towed a vessel into its waters from the strait after the ship issued a distress call. Although Tehran did not name the vessel, the Riah is the only ship whose recorded movements appear likely to match that description.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it appeared that the tanker was in Iranian territorial waters, but it was not clear whether that was because Iran had seized it or rescued it. The mystery comes at a time when Washington has called for greater security for ships in the Gulf.
Iran has threatened to retaliate for the British seizure of an Iranian oil tanker accused of violating sanctions on Syria. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has branded the British action “piracy”. The United States has also blamed Iran for attacks on tankers in the Gulf since May, which Tehran denies.
Shipping experts say U.S. sanctions on Iran intended to halt its oil exports have led to a rise in unusual tanker movements away from shipping lanes, with Iran seeking covert ways to export its oil. Increasingly, ships are switching off location transponders, transferring oil at sea and concealing their routes. Iran has also become more dependent on a fleet of ageing ships, and some have had to be towed for emergency repairs.
Adding to the riddle of the missing ship was difficulty establishing who owns it, which no country or company has so far publicly claimed. Initial reports described it as Emirati. However, an Emirati official told Reuters the tanker was neither owned nor operated by the UAE.
The tanker’s registered manager is Prime Tankers in the UAE. That company told Reuters it had sold the tanker to another UAE-based company, Mouj al-Bahar. An employee at Mouj al-Bahar told Reuters that the firm did not own it but had been managing the vessel up to two months ago, and that it was now under the management of a company called KRB Petrochem. Reuters could not reach KRB Petrochem for comment. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke over the phone Wednesday to discuss skyrocketing tensions with Iran.
The White House added to reporters that the call centered around “cooperation between the United States and Israel in advancing shared national security interests, including efforts to prevent Iran’s malign actions in the region.”
Trump warned that the administration would soon “substantially” increase sanctions on Iran after it exceeded the uranium enrichment limits laid out in a nuclear deal signed under the Obama administration.
The president withdrew the United States from the nuclear agreement in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran to try to force it to negotiate a different arrangement.
The sanctions, ratcheted up over the past year, have focused on Iran’s oil industry, metals sector, Revolutionary Guard and the supreme leader to maximize economic pressure.
The White House has also threatened Tehran with fiery rhetoric in past months, while accusing Iran of being involved in bombing two oil tankers and downing a U.S. surveillance drone. Trump confirmed that he had initiated and then called off a retaliatory strike after he said he learned 150 Iranians could be killed.
Israel views Iran as a prime antagonist in the Middle East over its nuclear program and support for armed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that pose more immediate military threats (Red/many sources).