US destroys Iranian drone
commerce,’’
In December, about 30 Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels trailed the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and its strike group through the strait as journalists on board watched. One small vessel launched what appeared to be a commercialgrade drone to film the US ships.
Other transits have seen the Iranians fire rockets away from US warships or test-fire their machine guns. The Guard’s small fast boats often cut in front of the massive carriers, running dangerously close to running into them in ‘‘swarm attacks.’’ The Guard boats are often armed with bomb-carrying drones and sea-tosea and surface-to-sea missiles.
Thursday’s incident was the latest in a series of events that raised US-Iran tensions since early May, when Washington accused Tehran of threatening U.S. forces and interests in Iraq and in the Gulf. In response, the US accelerated the deployment of the Lincoln and its strike group to the Arabian Sea and deployed four B-52 long-range bombers to the Gulf state of Qatar. It has since deployed additional Patriot air defense missile batteries in the Gulf region.
Shortly after Iran shot down a US Navy drone aircraft on June 20, Trump ordered a retaliatory military strike but called it off at the last moment, saying the risk of casualties was disproportionate to the downing by Iran, which did not cost any US lives.
Iran claimed the US drone violated its airspace; the Pentagon denied this.
Zarif said Thursday that Iran and the US were only ‘‘a few minutes away from a war’’ after Iran downed the American drone.
He spoke to US-based media on the sidelines of a visit to the United Nations.
At the meeting, Zarif also said Iran would be willing to move up an Iranian parliament ratification of an agreement Tehran made with the International Atomic Energy Association — one that outlined access to Iranian nuclear sites and other information.
A spokesman for Zarif explained that Iran is already abiding by the agreement under the 2015 nuclear deal, but it doesn’t have the force of law because it’s not supposed to be ratified by the Iranian parliament until 2023. Zarif told reporters that the ratification could come earlier if the U.S. eased sanctions.
A senior administration official responded that Trump has repeatedly said he is willing to have a conversation with Iranian leaders.
Zarif blamed Washington for the escalation of tensions.
‘‘We live in a very dangerous environment,’’ he said. ‘‘The United States has pushed itself and the rest of the world into probably the brink of an abyss.’’ Zarif accused the Trump administration of ‘‘trying to starve our people’’ and ‘‘deplete our treasury’’ through economic sanctions.
–AP detection and evade sanctions.
Experts suggested the amount of cargo was so insignificant it was likely Tehran only towed the vessel as a show of strength after Britain impounded an Iranian supertanker earlier this month.
‘‘Our analysis right now is that nothing has actually happened,’’ TankerTrackers.com, a company that uses satellite imagery to identify tankers, wrote on Twitter. – Telegraph Group