Iran made a very big mistake: Trump on US drone downing

In a possible confrontation over increased tensions with Iran after the downing of a US drone near the Persian Gulf, President Donald Trump on Thursday said that "Iran had made a bid mistake." "Iran made a very big mistake," Trump wrote on Twitter without mentioning any further detail.

Earlier today, Washington had said that one of its drones had been downed in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. But Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it had shot down an "intruding American spy drone", RQ-4 Global Hawk after it violated Iranian airspace over the southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

The move intensified the volatile situation that further deteriorated the relations between Washington and Tehran that heightened earlier this week after Trump announced his decision to deploy 1000 additional troops to the Middle East for "defensive purposes to address air, naval, and ground-based threats" in the region following the attack on the oil tankers. The incident marked the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on US assets amid an escalating crisis between the two countries, Al Jazeera reported.

Since its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Washington had reimposed and tightened sanctions on Tehran in a "maximum pressure" campaign with an aim to curb its nuclear and ballistic missiles programme.