Iran warns U.S. it could down more drones as Pompeo arrives in Persian Gulf

Iran’s navy chief warned the United States on Monday that Iranian forces could shoot down more surveillance drones if they violate the country’s airspace, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks with Arab allies in the Persian Gulf.

“The enemy dispatched its most sophisticated . . . and most complicated surveillance aircraft” to spy on Iran, and “everyone saw the downing of the drone,” Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi said Monday, referring to the U.S. Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk drone shot down by Iran last week.

Such a response from Iran “can always be repeated,” he said, the Tasnim News Agency reported. “And the enemy knows it.”

The commander’s remarks came amid a diplomatic push by the Trump administration to rally regional allies in an anti-Iran coalition, Pompeo said Sunday before departing for the Persian Gulf. The United States has embarked on a “maximum pressure campaign” to isolate Iran and roll back its influence in the region.

Tensions spiked in recent weeks following a string of attacks on commercial tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil shipments. The United States has blamed Iran for the attacks, an accusation Iranian officials deny.

President Trump last week said that he authorized a military strike against Iran in response to the downing of the drone but aborted the mission at the last minute to avoid Iranian casualties.

The State Department’s Iran envoy, Brian Hook, was in Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Monday to discuss Iran, including efforts to build a multinational force to enhance maritime security in the Persian Gulf, he said in a conference call with reporters.

Later Monday, Trump lamented on Twitter that the United States was “protecting the shipping lanes” in the strait for “other countries . . . for zero compensation.”

“All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been . . . a dangerous journey,” he said.