Military intercepts Iranian drone

DUBAI (AP):

The United Arab Emirates said that it intercepted an Iranian drone over its waters yesterday, an attack that comes after the United States and Iran exchanged fire over the weekend for the first time in a month.

Iranian officials said two people were killed and several others wounded in the US attack Sunday night on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by launching missiles at US sites in Jordan, which were intercepted.

During the lull in fighting, the US has been ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran with the hope of forcing concessions out of Tehran, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

After the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Iran established a chokehold on the vital strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed in peacetime, slowing ship traffic to a trickle. That has roiled the global economy, raising prices worldwide for energy and other goods.

As the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed above US$90, up about 25 per cent from the start of the war, presenting a growing problem for US President Donald Trump before the midterm elections.

A return to open conflict would be dangerous for the region, where Iran has targeted US military bases and infrastructure in Gulf countries since the war began.

In the wake of the renewed violence, Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president, said on social media that “the state of neither war nor peace cannot be a sustainable solution”.

He called for a political solution that would return normal navigation to the Strait of Hormuz, but also a “more realistic approach” than the June memo of understanding between Iran and the US, which, he said, “failed to outline a practical and acceptable” road map.

In a short statement earlier, the UAE Defence Ministry said it “dealt with” an Iranian drone that was detected over its waters approaching from Iran. There were no reports of damage.

“This dangerous escalation constitutes a blatant violation of the UAE’s sovereignty, security, and stability, and a direct threat to the safety of its citizens and residents,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The Defence Ministry later issued a second statement denying a claim by the Iranian army that the Al Minhad Air Base in Dubai had been targeted, saying it was false.

In the wake of the US attack on Sunday, Iran’s military warned that any further US attacks would draw a far heavier response, including strikes on bases or other points from which attacks against Iran are launched, state-run IRNA reported.

“The US military has no choice but to leave the region,” the statement from Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said.

RIGHT TO DEFEND

Speaking after the first day of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Kyrgyzstan, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States must abide by the June memo before the current conflict can end, state television reported.

Araghchi said Iran would continue defending its rights and that the solution to ending the conflict remained “completely clear”.

The summit brings together a group billed as a counterweight to US global influence, and includes Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkia was scheduled to meet with Putin on the sidelines today.