Iran vows to defend borders after downing US drone it says ignored warnings

Iran has vowed to defend its borders after shooting down a US drone it said entered the country’s airspace, as Donald Trump revealed he called off retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian targets with just minutes to spare.

The downing of the drone has seen tensions soar between the bitter rivals, after a series of attacks on tankers in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

Washington insists its $120m (£94m) Global Hawk drone, one of the most expensive pieces of military equipment in the country’s arsenal, was 34km from Iran when it was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile in an “unprovoked attack”.

However, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that he handed “indisputable” evidence to the Swiss ambassador to Iran, whose country represents US interests for Iran, that the drone had violated Iranian airspace.

Iranian television broadcast images of what it said was “debris” of the downed drone recovered from Iran’s territorial waters.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran would not hesitate for a moment to decisively defend its territory against any aggression,” Mr Araghchi added.

Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the aerospace arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile claimed the drone was warned twice before it was hit. He added that Iranian forces had refrained from targeting a nearby US plane which had 35 people on board.

“With the US drone in the region there was also an American P-8 plane with 35 people on board,” Mr Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

“This plane also entered our airspace and we could have shot it down, but we did not.”

Mr Trump confirmed that the US had nearly struck Iranian targets shortly after the drone was taken out, saying just 10 minutes before the retaliatory strikes were due to be carried out that he pulled back, due to concern over the death toll.

“I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General,” the president tweeted, concluding it would not have been “proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone”.

“I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go,” he wrote.

The shoot-down came as Iran was already accused by Washington of carrying out attacks on tankers in the congested shipping lanes heading out of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fearing an escalation in the conflict, the US Federal Aviation Administration barred American civilian aircraft from flying over the waterway, warning of imminent danger from surface-to-air missiles.

Airlines from across the world swiftly followed suit. British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa and Qantas all altered their flight paths to avoid the area.

Pressure has steadily built since Mr Trump announced last year he was reimposing sanctions on Iran and pulling out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers which aims to curtail Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

On Friday Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated threats that his country will, from 7 July, scale back its obligations laid out in the agreement unless Europe and other countries help save the deal.