BICOM

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a US drone as it entered Iranian airspace.

According to multiple Iranian semi-official outlets quoting the IRGC, the “spy” drone was shot down above Kuhmobarak in the Homozagan Province. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk. A US official told Reuters that an American Navy drone, an MQ-4C Triton, was shot down in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz — not in Iran’s airspace — by Iranian surface-to-air missile.

Capt. Bill Urban, a US Central Command spokesman, declined to comment when asked if an American drone was shot down but told The Associated Press: “There was no drone over Iranian territory.”

The incident followed US military allegations that Iran fired a missile at a drone last week hours before the attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security council told Reuters on Wednesday: “Our airspace is our red line and Iran has always responded and will continue to respond strongly to any country that violates our airspace.”

The US State Department have announced that Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, will travel to the Persian Gulf region today to hold meetings with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Yesterday, Hook told a US House of Representatives panel that “our pressure campaign” against Tehran is working.

The State Department said Hook “will discuss Iran’s regional aggression, including its recent attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman,” as well as: “Share additional US intelligence on the range of active threats Iran currently poses to the region.”

Hook will then travel to Europe for consultations with Britain, Germany, and France (the E3) on 27 June. He will meet in Paris with counterparts from the UK, Germany, and France to discuss a range of issues concerning the Iranian regime.

“We want to unify our efforts so that there is a de-escalation process that starts,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters yesterday after a cabinet meeting in Paris. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who attended the French cabinet meeting, added: “We need to do everything so that it doesn’t come to this. That’s why we are talking to all sides. I was in Iran and we are also talking with the Americans. We need to de-escalate through dialogue. It is a time of ‘diplomacy first’ and that’s what we are committed to.”