Trump says Iran ‘made very big mistake’ after shooting US drone

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, says Iran has “made a very big mistake” after Iranian forces shot down a US military drone.

Washington said on Thursday one of its drones had been downed in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

But Tehran disputed where the incident took place, saying the RQ-4 Global Hawk had violated Iranian airspace over the southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

Later on Thursday, Trump wrote on Twitter: “Iran made a very big mistake!”

Iran made a very big mistake!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019

The incident marked the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on US assets amid an escalating crisis between the two countries.

Tensions have increased since last year when Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of a nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers in 2015.

Since its withdrawal, Washington has reimposed and tightened sanctions on Tehran in a “maximum pressure” campaign it said was aimed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missiles programme.

The frictions ratcheted up in recent weeks in the wake of mysterious incidents that caused damage to commercial ships near the shipping lane of Strait of Hormuz, which the US has blamed on Iran over Iranian denials.

More to follow…