US President Donald Trump, who patrolled the Straits of Hormuz overnight, vowed to respond.
Threats from both sides
“I was just informed by our great armed forces that yesterday the Iranians shot down one of the state-of-the-art Apache helicopters while it was patrolling the Straits of Hormuz. The two pilots are uninjured and safe,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. “However, the US must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” he added.
“We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages much more fluently. Break your commitments and we will turn to the one we know best,” Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X.
This is the second aircraft the US has confirmed was shot down by Iranian forces since the start of the war on February 28.
An F-15E fighter-bomber crashed in April in southwestern Iran. Its two pilots were rescued, one of them after a spectacular military operation.
The US military’s Middle East Command (Centcom) previously announced that “two crew members” of an Apache AH-64 helicopter were rescued by US forces near the Omani side, about “two hours” after their aircraft was hit.
The truce is being tested
Donald Trump’s comments cast further uncertainty over the prospects for a ceasefire, as announced on April 8 in the Gulf War. As Agence France-Presse notes, this is a remarkable change of tone, while Donald Trump, hours earlier, assured that American diplomacy “is in the final stages of a very, very good agreement” to end the hostilities, speaking of a period of “two or three days” in order to be concluded.
Yesterday, Israel and Iran announced they would halt attacks against each other, following a call by Trump for a halt to the first direct exchange of fire since April, but Tehran warned it would resume hostilities if Israel continues attacks on its Hezbollah ally in Lebanon.
“We prefer the language of diplomacy…”
Hours after US President Donald Trump accused Iran of shooting down a US Apache helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, threatening retaliation, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said today that for other countries’ armed forces deployed near Iranian territory, “the best solution is to withdraw”.
Without specifically referring to the American Apache, Aragchi stressed in a post on Platform X: “Foreign forces (including those deployed) near our territory are constantly in danger, due to human error on their part, simple accident or because they may find themselves in the middle of crossfires. To reduce the risk, the best solution for them is to leave.”
“We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we also speak other languages,” added the head of Iranian diplomacy.
Foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire.
To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave.
We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi)
