Iran has summoned the United Arab Emirates’ top envoy to Tehran to protest the neighboring Arab nation’s allowing the US to use a base there to launch a drone that Iran says entered its airspace.
The Saturday report by the official IRNA news agency said Iran issued a “strong protest” to the UAE diplomat, saying Iran does not tolerate the facilitation of foreign forces that violate its territory.
The US says its RQ-4A Global Hawk was shot down Thursday over international waters, not inside Iranian airspace.
On Friday, Iran summoned Swiss Ambassador Markus Leitner to hear Iran’s protest over the alleged violation. Switzerland looks after US interests in Iran. Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since 1979.
Iran says the US drone was a “very dangerous provocation,” whereas US President Donald Trump has said that Iran had made a very dangerous mistake by shooting down the drone.