Fears of a war between Iran and the United States continue to intensify after Iranian forces shot down a US drone. On Thursday, Iran said they had successfully downed an unmanned aircraft in Iranian airspace. However, the US said their drone was in international territory before it was finally hit by a surface-to-air-missile. The quick developing events have activated international alarm and impelled concern the standoff is eventually going to escalate into a major open confrontation between the two nations.
Latest Happenings
On Monday 24th, the Iranian government said they will not be shaken by the new US sanctions as it will have “no impact”. “We really do not know what the new sanctions are and what they want to target anymore, and also do not consider them to have any impact,” said Abbas Mousavi at a press conference in Tehran.
Since the escalation of these tensions, the US has already imposed a robust slate of punitive sanctions on Tehran. These sanctions were aimed at choking off Iranian oil sales while at the same time crippling its economy. On Monday, Hesamodin Ashna, the advisor to President Hassan Rouhani twitted “America’s claim of readiness for unconditional negotiation is not acceptable with the continuation of threats and sanctions. We consider war and sanctions to be two sides of the same coin.
US Secretary of State Meeting withSaudi Arabia’s King
On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo twitted that he had discussed the heightened tensions in the region with Salman, Saudi Arabia’s King during a meeting in Jeddah.He also said that they talked about the need to promote maritime security in the region following attacks on oil tankers in Gulf Waters which Riyadh and Washington are blaming Iran. However, Tehran has completely denied these charges.
President Trump Willing to Talk to Iran
A senior US official said President Donald Trump is ready and willing to talk to Iran concerning a deal that would lift American sanctions but Tehran would have to close its nuclear and missile programmed as well as its support for proxies. On the other hand, US Special Representative on Iran Brian Hook told reporters that Iran could ‘come to the table or watch its economy crumble”. He however, refused to give more details about the new US sanctions that are expected later on Monday. Hook was speaking by telephone from Oman where he is currently touring Gulf countries before heading to Paris.
Iran-US tensions are set to escalate even further as more sanctions continue to be imposed by the US government on Iran. Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has warned Iran about more sanctions if it continued its “aggressive policies” but said Riyadh had no intension of going into war. For now we only have to wait and see what new sanctions the US is going to impose and how Iran is going to respond to these sanctions. It is only then that we can know how this tension will fair on.