Gov't spokesman asks Trump to prove claim of downing Iranian drone

Iran's Government Spokesman Ali Rabiyee said that US President Donald Trump should prove his claim that the country's warships have shot down an Iranian drone in the Persian Gulf.

According to Fars news agency, Rabiyee told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday "Our claim is that no Iranian drone has been targeted. Anyone who claims otherwise, should prove it."

"The measures regarding our drones' patrolling missions are aimed at safeguarding our security," he added.

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Trump lied about the American warship's downing of an Iranian drone.

“The lie told by Trump was so big that we believed it at first that they had been able to shoot down one of our drones,” Hajizadeh said after a meeting with Iranian lawmakers at the Iranian parliament on Sunday.

“After Trump's allegation about downing an Iranian drone, we checked with various (Iranian military) units several times…because we could not believe that he would tell such a big lie to the media himself,” the IRGC commander added.

“This is why we waited a few hours before rejecting the news and finally noticed that our unmanned aerial vehicle had monitored the activity of the (American) strike group before reaching the Strait of Hormuz and after getting out of it,” General Hajizadeh said.

The Iranian commander noted that the Americans then blamed Trump's hawkish national security advisor for the lie.

Trump claimed last week that the USS Boxer had fired on an Iranian drone on Thursday, shooting it down in the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a near distance, approximately 1000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down threatening safety of ship and ship’s crew,” he said at the White House.

The US president claimed that Iran’s drone “was immediately destroyed.”

Minutes later the Pentagon also issued a statement to confirm the report, but did not claim that the drone was Iranian.

The Pentagon claimed the Iranian drone was within a “threatening range” of the US ship.

“At approximately 10 a.m. local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

“A fixed wing Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within a threatening range. The ship took defensive action against the UAS to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew.”

The top military brass in Tehran rushed to deny the claim. Spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said on Friday that Trump's statement was absurd and baseless, stressing that the false claim about downing an Iranian Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) was intended to increase tensions in international waterways and disrupting security in the Strait of Hormuz.

"Unlike Trump’s delusional and groundless claim, all drones belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, including the one mentioned by the US president, have returned to their bases safe and sound after carrying out their scheduled surveillance and control operations,” the Armed Forces mouthpiece added.

ME