Already poor relations between Tehran and Washington got worse Thursday morning after Iranian air defence forces shot down a US spy drone they said was operating in Iranian airspace.
US President Donald Trump issued a multipart statement on Friday morning confirming that he had "stopped" a military strike against three sites in Iran after finding out that about 150 people would die in the attack. The tweets followed earlier reports by US media that Trump had reportedly approved an attack on Iran in response to Thursday's drone shoot-down, but backtracked at the last minute.
Trump said ten minutes before the strike was set to be carried out, he "stopped it," saying it was "not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone."
"I am in no hurry," Trump said, boasting that the US military has been rebuilt and was "ready to go," and that anti-Iranian sanctions were "biting" and that more have been added overnight after the drone shootdown incident.
In the tweets, Trump also accused his predecessor Barrack Obama of making a "desperate and terrible deal with Iran," accusing him of giving them a "free path to Nuclear Weapons, and SOON." According to the US president, his decision to terminate the deal and to impose tough sanctions have left Iran a "much weakened nation" that was economically "Bust!"
Earlier Friday, Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran's air defence troops had sent the US spy drone two warnings before making the decision to shoot it down. Hajizadeh also indicated that air defences picked up a US Boeing P-8 Poseidon military reconnaisance plane with dozens of airmen on board, but chose not to shoot it down, saying the drone's shoot-down would be enough of "a warning to the American terrorist forces." Washington has not commented on Hajizadeh's remarks.