Iran confirmed on Friday morning a report from the U.S. Pentagon that two warplanes from the country fired on a U.S. drone last week in the Persian Gulf. Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Defense Minister was quoted on a news website in Iran as saying Iran’s armed forces fired upon an anonymous aircraft that had entered the airspace of Iran. That countered the Pentagon report that said the aircraft from the U.S. was in international waters.
Iran made a vow to confront any aircraft that entered its airspace. According to the news agency FARS, Massoud Jazayeri the General of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said his country would give respond with decisiveness to any sea, ground or aerial aggression.
George Little a spokesman from the Pentagon said on Thursday that the unmanned drone had been in international waters on a normal classified mission of surveillance November 1 when it was fired upon by a military plane from Iran. The drone was not hit in the altercation.
Little told reporters that the United States had informed Iran it was prepared to safeguard all of its forces and would continue to operate surveillance missions in the Persian Gulf in accordance with its commitment to maintaining security in the area.
Little said that the U.S. had not ruled out either a diplomatic or a military response. The Pentagon said it routinely flies missions to check on nuclear sites in Iran and other sites, but said this was the first time that a drone had been fired upon by Iran.
