19 July 2019•Update: 19 July 2019
TEHRAN
Iran denied remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the U.S. hit an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi tweeted on Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, Trump said the U.S. forces destroyed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz after it threatened an American warship.
Trump said the Iranian unmanned aircraft was shot down by the USS Boxer, a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship, and that "the drone was immediately destroyed”.
“I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS by mistake!” Araghchi added.
Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have flared in recent months following Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iranian crude oil exports that were lifted as part of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers.
Trump unilaterally exited the U.S. from the agreement in May 2018, calling on other parties to follow suit while taking actions to scuttle the pact.
Iran downed a U.S. drone in June that it says violated its airspace -- the Trump administration, meanwhile, said, it remained above international waters.
The incident nearly resulted in retaliatory strikes Trump says he called off because he said it would have been a disproportionate response.
The Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf, has been a hotbed of activity amid the standoff with Iran on the one side, and the U.S. and its Gulf Arab allies on the other.
