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Trump suggests 'loose and stupid' Iranian officer attacked US drone
Source: The Guardian
Trump suggests 'loose and stupid' Iranian officer attacked US drone
President stopped short of escalating standoff, saying if a person was in the drone ‘it would have made a big, big difference’
Julian Borger in Washington and Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Fri 21 Jun 2019 01.56 BST First published on Thu 20 Jun 2019 19.00 BST
Donald Trump has stopped short of escalating the worsening standoff with Iran in the Persian Gulf, suggesting that the shooting down of a US drone could have been carried out by a “loose and stupid” Iranian officer without authorisation from Tehran, and emphasising that the aircraft was unmanned.
After meeting with his top national security officials to discuss Wednesday night’s downing of a Global Hawk spy drone, the president declared: “I would imagine it was a general or somebody that made a mistake in shooting that drone down.
“I find it hard to believe it was intentional if you want to know the truth. I think it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it,” Trump told journalists. “It was a very foolish move.”
Trump reinforced the administration’s red line that it would respond militarily if Iranian forces or proxies harm Americans – but stressed that was not the case on this occasion.
-snip-
President stopped short of escalating standoff, saying if a person was in the drone ‘it would have made a big, big difference’
Julian Borger in Washington and Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Fri 21 Jun 2019 01.56 BST First published on Thu 20 Jun 2019 19.00 BST
Donald Trump has stopped short of escalating the worsening standoff with Iran in the Persian Gulf, suggesting that the shooting down of a US drone could have been carried out by a “loose and stupid” Iranian officer without authorisation from Tehran, and emphasising that the aircraft was unmanned.
After meeting with his top national security officials to discuss Wednesday night’s downing of a Global Hawk spy drone, the president declared: “I would imagine it was a general or somebody that made a mistake in shooting that drone down.
“I find it hard to believe it was intentional if you want to know the truth. I think it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it,” Trump told journalists. “It was a very foolish move.”
Trump reinforced the administration’s red line that it would respond militarily if Iranian forces or proxies harm Americans – but stressed that was not the case on this occasion.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/iran-us-drone-attack-trump-response
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