U.S. downs Iranian drone
WASHINGTON — A U.S. naval ship downed an Iranian drone that flew too close and ignored multiple calls to turn away, President Donald Trump said Thursday, as tensions between the United States and Iran appeared to be rising again in the Persian Gulf region.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said the drone came within 1,000 yards of the USS Boxer in the Strait of Hormuz before the crew “took defensive action” and “immediately destroyed” it.
Trump’s disclosure of the drone incident came hours after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was responsible for seizing a tanker that was reported missing over the weekend in the strait, which controls access to the Persian Gulf and the oil that flows through it.
The tanker, based in the United Arab Emirates, and its 12-member crew were detained after they were found to be smuggling Iranian fuel, according to a statement by the Revolutionary Guard. The statement appeared to contradict an earlier claim by Iran’s Foreign Ministry that Iranian authorities had rescued the ship after it broke down.
The downing of the drone follows a string of recent incidents, including attacks on tankers, that U.S. officials say are part of an Iranian effort to harm the United States and its allies in the region. The United States has continued to exert a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran to force Tehran back to the negotiating table after the United States walked away from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year.
Iran has responded with defiance to the effort, and tensions have escalated sharply in recent months.
In May, national security adviser John Bolton released an unusual statement saying that the United States was sending to the region a bomber task force and a naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier, rather than having the Defense Department handle the announcement.
A video posted on the website of Iran’s English-language Press TV showed Iranian boats circling and then closing in on a small tanker clearly marked with the name Riah--the same name as the UAE-based tanker that went missing. UAE officials have denied any association with the Panamaflagged tanker, although shipping records suggest that it is owned by a UAE-based company and that it has spent the past few years operating solely out of Emerati ports.
According to the Revolutionary Guard’s statement, the tanker took delivery of 264,000 gallons of smuggled Iranian fuel from several smaller Iranian fishing boats near Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking at a briefing for journalists at the United Nations in New York, seemed unsure whether the detained tanker was the same one that his ministry said had been rescued. But, he said, the seizure of the tanker reported Thursday should be viewed in the context of Iran’s anti-smuggling efforts.
The U.S. has accused Iran of two attacks in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, in which magnetic limpet mines exploded against the hulls of foreign tankers in May and June. Iran has denied the charge, although it has often threatened to retaliate against the United States and world shipping if its oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are brought to a halt.