ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s armed forces spokesman has denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that an Iranian drone was brought down by the US military over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said all Iranian drones had returned safely to base on Thursday, claiming: “There has been no report of operational confrontation with USS Boxer.” “Contrary to the empty claim stemming from Trump’s disillusionment, all the Islamic Republic of Iran’s drones in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz including the drone mentioned by the President of America returned safely to their bases after completing their planned reconnaissance and control missions,” Shekarchi said, according to FARS news, an agency close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In a tweet on Friday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi denied Iran had lost any drones, hinting the US may have shot down one of its own “by mistake”. President Trump told reporters on Thursday that the USS Boxer destroyed an Iranian drone over the Strait of Hormuz almost a month after the IRGC shot down a US surveillance drone in the Persian Gulf region. “This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters. The United States reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests,” Trump told a White House briefing. “At approximately 10 a.m. local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz. A fixed wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within a threatening range. The ship took defensive action against the UAS to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement. Tensions are continuing to rise in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a significant portion of the world’s oil is shipped every day. Iran was placed under excruciating US economic sanctions after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and launched an all-out economic war against Tehran to stop its malign activities in the Middle East. Washington has brought Iran’s oil exports, a critical source of revenue for the government and the IRGC, to almost zero, placing extreme pressure on Iran, where inflation and unemployment are rising and the currency has lost more than 60 percent of its value. Iran remains defiant and has taken extreme measures in response to Washington belligerent actions, suspending some of its commitments to the nuclear deal, raising fears among the European signatories that the landmark accord may eventually collapse, with dire consequences for the region and potential war. While France, Germany, and Britain have said they do not agree with Trump’s aggressive posture towards Iran, they have expressed concerns about Iran’s scaling back on its commitments to the deal. European signatories are trying to initiate a barter system that would allow Iran to use its oil money to buy goods in Europe as a way to ease sanctions pressure. In a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani welcomed European efforts, but warned Iran would scrap further commitments to the deal if progress slows. The IRGC announced on Thursday it had seized a foreign ship on Sunday carrying one million liters of smuggled Iranian fuel. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif played down the incident, claiming the seizure of such vessels by Iranian forces is routine. “It’s not a tanker. It’s a small ship carrying a million liters, not a million barrels, of oil. We do it every other day. These are people who are smuggling our fuel. This is … one of the things that we do in the Persian Gulf, because of the heavy subsidies that we provide for our own fuel products,” he said.
