On Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump said the US Navy shot down an Iranian done in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the president, the USS Boxer warned the operators of the drone to stand down, but those warnings were “ignored”. And so, the ship “took defensive action”, which in this case means the drone was “immediately destroyed”.
Trump is calling this “the latest in many provocative and hostile actions by Iran on vessels operating in international waters”.
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The news came less than an hour after reports that Iran had made an offer to the US regarding nuclear inspections, an overture that’s being billed by Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as potentially a big deal.
It’s probably not accurate to call it a “charm offensive”, but Zarif certainly has been keen to present Iran as some semblance of approachable this week, during interviews and remarks to the press. (That characterization isn’t one everyone would agree with – some suggested his remarks “offered a grim outlook for a breakthrough”.)
Zarif granted a sweeping chat to Bloomberg on Wednesday, that found the country’s top diplomat insisting that the US had “shot itself in the foot” by exiting the nuclear accord. He also defended the deal he helped negotiate, noting that it’s hardly useless or lacking in substance, as Trump has been keen to suggest. On the nukes, Zarif said that if Tehran wanted a weapon, “we could have built [one] a long time ago”, but Khamenei made a “religious commitment” not to go that route.
He also cited Trump’s threat to slap Mexico with across-the-board tariffs as evidence that this administration can’t be trusted. You might recall that one of the biggest worries about Trump’s Mexico tariff threat was that it would convey to China, Iran, Europe (and anyone else engaged in talks with the US) that Trump negotiates in bad faith as a matter of course. “After renegotiating NAFTA he raised a new demand and he tried to push Mexicans into giving in a bit more”, Zarif told Bloomberg. “So he always believes, it seems, that ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable'”.
Correct. That is, in fact, exactly how Trump thinks. Nevertheless, Iran is going to give it a go, or at least according to The Guardian, which on Thursday reported that Zarif has made an offer to Trump that would see the country agree to “enhanced inspections of its nuclear program, in return for the permanent lifting of US sanctions”.
“It’s not about photo ops. We are interested in substance”, he told reporters at the Iranian mission to the UN in New York, adding that “there are other substantial moves that can be made”.
Iran has variously insisted that its missiles program isn’t up for debate and Khamenei continues to describe prospective talks with Trump as a waste of time. Further, Tehran’s support for regional proxies (e.g., Hezbollah) will be unwavering no matter what anybody on either side says. Given that, it seems unlikely that Trump’s Iran hawks (Mike Pompeo and John Bolton) will be inclined to accept an offer that amounts to anything less than complete surrender.
The Guardian adds the following useful color and context:
Zarif signaled on Thursday that Iran was willing to do a deal that did not necessary involve the US returning to the JCPOA, Tehran’s official position until now.
Zarif noted that in 2023, under the JCPOA, Iran’s parliament was supposed to ratify the Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a voluntary agreement that allows IAEA inspectors extensive access in Iran to ensure the country does not have a covert nuclear weapons programme. At the same time, under the JCPOA, the US Congress was due to lift sanctions on Iran.
Zarif proposed that the Iran and US take those steps immediately.
Zarif also played down the latest tanker incident in the Gulf. On Tuesday, Iran claimed the vessel in question – which went missing for a couple of days – was having “technical difficulties” and was towed into Iranian waters to be “repaired”. The story has been in the news since. “It’s not a tanker. It’s a small ship carrying a million litres, not a million barrels, of oil”, Zarif said. “We do it every other day”. He also decried the UK’s seizure of the Grace 1 off Gibraltar, an incident which raised the stakes between Tehran and Europe at the worst possible time.
On Wednesday, reports indicated that Trump was prepared to let Rand Paul try to work things out with the Iranians. Zarif wasn’t particularly impressed with that. “I don’t deal with [secret] emissaries”, he quipped, on the way to indicating he’d be open to formal meetings.
Read more: Rand Paul Is Going To Save Us All From A Horrific War With Iran
As far as the offer that’s currently on the table, Zarif said that if Trump is “putting his money where his mouth is, he’ll… do it”.
“They don’t need a photo op. They don’t need a two-page document with a big signature”, he added.
That’s where Zarif is wrong. Trump absolutely needs photo ops, short documents and big signatures. That’s literally the president’s whole schtick.
Zarif also praised Trump for not pulling the trigger on strikes last month following the downing of a US drone. On Thursday, triggers were apparently pulled. It remains to be seen how that will affect Iran’s willingness to negotiate.
OK ….then let us speculate …… they shot down our drone …we wanted to look tough so we asked , as rumor has it,to bomb a sand dune or two to look tough and that third party request was denied … Risking WW3 was only to Pompeo and Bolton’s liking so it thankfully did not happen. So ….we shot down a drone from Iran as a face saver and Voila …no WW3…We can work together …see what I mean !!!!