Iran warns US it has power to bring down passenger plane after drone attack

Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said it refrained from downing the P-8 jet, carrying 35 people, as it simply wanted to warn the US to back off. The P-8 was accompanying the US drone, as it flew through international airspace, before it was downed by Iran. According to Tasnim news agency, Mr Hajizadeh said: “With the US drone in the region there was also an American P-8 plane with 35 people on board. This plane also entered our airspace and we could have shot it down, but we did not.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi tweeted Iran “responds with diplomacy… war with firm defence”.

He was responding to comments made by US envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, who said during a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: “Our diplomacy does not give Iran the right to respond with military force, Iran needs to meet our diplomacy with diplomacy and not military force.

“It’s important we do everything we can to de-escalate.”

Iran brought down a US military drone on Thursday, warning Donald Trump it would defend its “red lines”. 

Donald Trump retaliated, mobilising his warships and jets in the area ready to strike Iranian military bases in a missile attack. But he withdrew at the last minute. 

Donald Trump sent a warning to Iran, via Oman, that a US attack was imminent yesterday.

An anonymous official said: “In his message, Trump said he was against any war with Iran and wanted to talk to Tehran about various issues.

“He gave a short period of time to get our response but Iran’s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei to decide about this issue,” the source said.

A second Iranian official said: “We made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision.

“However, we told the Omani official that any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”

Tensions have been riding high since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, reimposing sanctions. 

The US earlier this month blamed Iran for an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, claiming it had video footage showing Iranian military removing an unexploded missile off one of the foreign ships. Iran denied it was behind the strikes. 

The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered American airlines not to fly over Iranian airspace.

OPSGROUP, which provides guidance to operators, said: “The threat of a civil aircraft shoot down in southern Iran is real.”

Emirates today joined Australia’s Quantas and the Netherlands’ KLM airlines in following suit.

source: express.co.uk