Iranian fishermen 'find remnants of downed US drone'

Iranian fishermen 'find remnants of downed US drone'
The Iranian ambassador to the UK claimed in a tweet that fishermen have found pieces of a US drone shot down by Iran over the Gulf on 20 June.
1 min read
25 June, 2019
Images tweeted by the ambassador showed fishermen with fragments of the US drone [Twitter]

Iranian fishermen have allegedly found wreckage from a US Global Hawk spy drone which was shot down by Iran over the Gulf on 20 June, the Iranian ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, tweeted on Monday.

Baeidinejad tweeted images of men carrying what appeared to be parts of the drone, marked with a US air force logo. Iran said the drone was shot down over Iranian waters but Washington claims that the drone was flying over international waters, 34 kilometres from the Iranian coast.

US President Donald Trump said that he ordered strikes against Iran in response to the downing of the drone, but called them off at the last minute when realising that 150 Iranians could be killed.

Trump later said that he would be Iran's "best friend" if it gave up its alleged ambition to develop nuclear weapons but later announced new sanctions targeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian leaders.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif responded to the sanctions by ruling out any dialogue with the US.

On Friday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard released video purporting to show other fragments of the US drone.