Tensions soar after Iran shoots down US drone
Trump called the strike a 'foolish move'; national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports.
The Pentagon released a map Thursday indicating that the U.S. drone shot down by Iran was over international waters and not over Iran, contrary to what Iranian officials maintain.
The Defense Department indicated that the location of the shoot-down was outside Iranian-claimed territorial waters.
(The Pentagon)
On the other hand, Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, posted a map on Twitter disputing the information provided by the Pentagon. Iran's map -- Zarif tweeted out a picture of it -- included handwritten notes suggesting that the drone was shot down about eight miles from Iranian shores, within Iranian airspace.
He tweeted, “At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE [United Arab Emirates] in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak. We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down.”
Iran blasted the Navy high-altitude drone out of the sky over the Strait of Hormuz, with U.S. Central Command leaders on Thursday slamming the "unprovoked" strike and Tehran's subsequent "false" justifications for it.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance ISR aircraft, known as a BAMS-D, was shot down about 7:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The drone cost about $110 million, according to a Navy official.
The U.S. Navy’s RQ-4A Global Hawk drone provides real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions "over vast ocean and coastal regions," according to the military.
The downing of the drone, via surface-to-air missile, is only the most recent Iranian provocation in the region, coming on the heels of a disputed attack on a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. U.S. officials say Iran was behind the tanker attacks. But the Islamic Republic has not claimed responsibility and even suggested American involvement in the plot.
BIDEN CALLS IRAN TENSIONS ‘SELF-INFLICTED DISASTER’ AFTER US DRONE SHOOT-DOWN
Iran also tried to shoot down another drone, but missed, U.S. officials told Fox News.
Iran said it "does not seek war" but has the right under the U.N. Charter "to take all appropriate necessary measures against any hostile act violating its territory."
Iran's U.N. ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, wrote in a letter to the U.N. secretary-general and the international body's Security Council that the Islamic Republic targeted a U.S. drone which violated its airspace and "is determined to vigorously defend its land, sea and air."
He said Iran acted under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which allows military action in self-defense "if an armed attack occurs."
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The drone was sent to the Middle East in the past few days as part of reinforcements to the region approved by President Trump last month.
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Amy Kellogg, Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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