Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had some pointed words about Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Friday, as Tehran denies that the United States downed an Iranian drone.
“It went down, and the fact that Foreign Minister Zarif either didn’t know or lied about it I can’t account for,” Pompeo told reporters Friday while traveling in Argentina. “It happened.”
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The drone was taken down using electronic jamming after “clos[ing] within a threatening range” of a U.S. Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials. President Trump cited the incident as “the latest of many provocative and hostile actions” by the regime in the Persian Gulf. Iranian officials insist that they did not lose a drone but nonetheless proceeded to seize two oil tankers Friday.
“I checked with Tehran, and we do not have any information about having lost a drone today,” Zarif told The National Interest on Thursday. “So, we don’t know, as of now what has happened. We have the president saying that they shot a drone. We don’t know whose drone it is, but we don’t have that information.”
Each government is trying to gain leverage in advance of a prospective negotiation over the regime’s nuclear weapons program and regional aggression. Trump has renewed sanctions on Iran in the year since withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, but Iranian officials have refused to meet with him despite repeated overtures.
“He believes he is trying to get a better deal through pressure,” Zarif said. “If he has been advised that that is how to get a better deal, I think he has been misadvised — or ill-advised.”
The standoff nearly turned bloody after Iran downed an U.S. military drone, but Trump called off a retaliatory airstrike at the 11th hour.
“He’s made clear we’re prepared to conduct negotiations with no preconditions,” Pompeo said. “The Iranians continue to say, well, they’ll talk, but only — if and only if the United States does something. We need them to come to the table. It’s the right way to resolve these challenges.”
