US President Donald Trump approved military strikes on Friday against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching the attacks, US media reports say.
Citing senior White House officials, The New York Times reported that an operation sanctioned by Trump to launch attacks on a “handful of Iranian targets”, including radar and missile batteries, was “in its early stages” on Thursday evening when the US leader changed tack and called it off.
Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles fired, when the order to stand down came, NYT cited one senior administration official as saying.
The Washington Post and ABC news also reported the developments, citing unnamed White House officials and other sources said to be familiar with the matter.
The White House was yet to comment on the reports.
‘Catastrophic clash’
The reports came just hours after Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had shot down an unmanned US aircraft after it flew into Iranian airspace.
US officials later said the drone, which was allegedly brought down by a surface-to-air missile, was in international territory at the time it was brought down. Trump, for his part, accused Iran of making a “very big mistake” but also said the shooting down of the drone was not “intentional”.
On Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran had “indisputable” evidence that the aircraft had violated its airspace.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Swiss ambassador Markus Leitner, whose country represents US interests in Iran, of the evidence on Thursday night, the ministry said in a statement.
“Even some parts of the drone’s wreckage have been retrieved from Iran’s territorial waters,” Araghchi told the Swiss envoy, according to the statement.
The statement came after Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, sent a letter to the body’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, denouncing the aircraft’s movements as a “blatant violation of international law”.
“While the Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek war, it reserves its inherent right … to take all appropriate necessary measures against any hostile act violating its territory, and is determined to vigorously defend its land, sea and air,” Ravanchi said.
FAA bars flights in Gulf
The incident marked the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on US assets and came amid heightened tensions between the US and Iran, unleashed by Trump’s decision last year to withdraw from an international accord that curbed Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The downing of the $130m drone was also the latest in an escalating series of incidents in the Gulf since mid-May, including suspected attacks on six tankers that the US blamed on Iran.
Tehran denied involvement, but Washington has since boosted its military presence in the Gulf, citing unspecified threats from Iran. All of this has raised fears that a miscalculation or a further rise in frictions could push the US and Iran into open conflict.
Amid the heightened friction, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency notice on Thursday barring US airlines from flying in airspace over parts of the Gulf due to “due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions”.
#FAA issued #NOTAM warning pilots that flights are not permitted in the overwater area of the Tehran Flight Information Region until further notice, due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions. https://t.co/BQ2GOeFSEn pic.twitter.com/4t1OWEzkYZ
— The FAA (@FAANews) June 21, 2019
“All flight operations in the overwater area of the Tehran flight information region …above the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman only are prohibited under further notice due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions,” the FAA said.
Analysts, meanwhile, warned the downing of the drone and its subsequent fallout could result in a major conflict erupting in the region.
“This is a 1914 moment in the region – a single incident can result into catastrophic clash in the region,” Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director for the Belgium-based International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
“That would not just involve the Iranians and the Americans, but the entire region would be put on fire,” Vaez added.
Regional tensions
Authorities from US ally in the region Saudi Arabia said on Friday that Riyadh supported the “United States maximum pressure campaign on Iran”, adding it had discussed the latest “Iranian attacks” with Washington.
Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi’s deputy defence minister, said in a tweet that he had discussed recent attacks in the region with US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook during a meeting between the pair.
“We affirmed the Kingdom’s support for the United States maximum pressure campaign on Iran, which came as a result of continuing Iranian hostility and terrorism, and discussed the latest Iranian attacks on the Kingdom,” bin Salman said.
On Thursday, Saudi officials said Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi rebels had fired a “projectile” at a desalination plant in the Kingdom’s southern province of Jizan, but said no one was wounded and there was no damage caused to the facility.
The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks amid the rising tensions throughout the Middle East.
