19th July, 2019
President Donald Trump said there was “no doubt” the U.S. Navy had brought down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz this week while Tehran showed video footage that it said disproved the incident even happened.
Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, told reporters at the White House they were certain the USS Boxer warship had downed an Iranian pilotless aircraft on Thursday at the Gulf’s strategic waterway.
“No doubt about it, no. We shot it down,” Trump said.
Speaking of Iran, he said the United States hopes “for their sake they don’t do anything foolish. If they do they will pay a price like nobody has ever paid a price.”
Bolton said: “There’s no question that it was an Iranian drone and the USS Boxer took it out yesterday.”
But Iran said all of its drones were accounted for, amid growing international concern that both sides could blunder into a war in the strategic waterway.
Iran’s state television broadcast a video showing aerial views of ships that it said disproved the U.S. assertion. The television station said a drone had captured the footage, which came from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and that timing notations indicated the pilotless aircraft was still filming after Washington said it had been downed.
The episode is the latest test of nerves around the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint for oil tankers. Oil prices rose on Friday because of the tension.
Despite tough talk on both sides and an Iranian downing of a U.S. drone in June, Washington and Tehran have so far shown restraint.
Trump announced on Thursday the Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, had destroyed an Iranian drone because it had flown to within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of the ship in a “provocative and hostile action.”
A U.S. official said the drone was brought down by electronic jamming.
Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior Iranian armed forces spokesman, was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying there was no report of any “operational response” by the USS Boxer.
“All drones belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz … returned safely to their bases after their mission of identification and control,” he said.
Iran and the United States are in a series of disputes over issues including security in the Gulf, Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and U.S. sanctions.