U.S. almost attacked Iranian targets after downing of American drone

Iranian media showed the trajectory of the drone according to Tehran, after it took off from the United Arab Emirates.


U.S. President Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching attacks, US media reports said on Friday. Citing senior White House officials.
 The New York Times reported an operation sanctioned by Trump to launch attacks on a "handful of Iranian targets" - including radar and missile batteries - was "in its early stages" on Thursday evening when the US leader changed tack and called it off.
Planes and ships were already underway when the order to stand down came, the Times cited one unidentified administration official as saying. The Washington Post and ABC News also reported the developments, citing unnamed White House officials and other sources said to be familiar with the matter. The White House declined to comment on the reports.
On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran had "indisputable" evidence that the aircraft violated its airspace. Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Swiss Ambassador Markus Leitner, whose country represents US interests in Iran, of the evidence on Thursday night, the ministry said in a statement. "Even some parts of the drone's wreckage has been retrieved from Iran's territorial waters," Araghchi said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave the exact coordinates where he said the drone was shot down.

Iranian state television broadcast images of what it said was debris from the downed US drone recovered inside its territorial waters. The broadcast showed a short clip of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general answering journalists' questions in front of some of the debris that he said had been recouped from Iranian waters. Iran gave two warnings before downing the US drone over the Gulf of Oman, said Brigadier-General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC's aerospace arm. "Unfortunately, when they failed to reply ... and the aircraft made no change to its trajectory ... we were obliged to shoot it down," Hajizadeh said.
Analysts, meanwhile, warned the downing of the drone and its subsequent fallout could result in a major conflict erupting in the region. Trump's administration reimposed punitive sanctions on Iran last year after the US leader pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal brokered between the Islamic Republic and several other world powers, sending its economy into freefall. The downing of the $130m drone was also the latest in an escalating series of incidents in the Gulf since mid-May, including unexplained explosions on six tankers that the US blamed on Iran. Tehran vehemently denied involvement and suggested the US may be responsible as a casus belli to launch a war on the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia said it backed the U.S,. in its attitude towards Iran. Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi's deputy defence minister, said in a tweet that he had discussed the latest "Iranian attacks"with US envoy for Iran Brian Hook during a meeting between the pair.
Airlines have temporarily halted  their traffic over the Straits of Hormuz.