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As it happenedended1561057681

Trump news: President tweets Iran made 'very big mistake' in shooting down drone as Putin warns of 'disastrous' prospect of war

Follow for the latest from Washington, as it happened

Clark Mindock
New York
,Joe Sommerlad,Chris Stevenson
Thursday 20 June 2019 18:00 BST
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Donald Trump tight lipped on response to Iran

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has shot down a US drone to send a “clear message” to the Trump administration after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo blamed the regime for an attack on two foreign oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz last week — leading to Donald Trump saying that someone had made a "big mistake".

Donald Trump's comment came as the US was warned by Russian president Vladimir Putin that any war between the two nations would be a “disaster”. The Pentagon has meanwhile called the downing of the drone an “unprovoked attack” by Tehran in international airspace, although Iran says the drone crossed its border.

On Capitol Hill, the Senate voted on legislation to block the Trump administration from selling US-made weapons to Saudi Arabia and its Gulf nation allies. This follows a decision by the UK government to halt approvals for the sale of weapons that could be used in the conflict in Yemen after its processes were ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal.

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If you missed it earlier, here's Lindsey Graham discussing Iran.

Clark Mindock20 June 2019 18:00
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We have some more from Donald Trump's statements in the Oval Office today, per the White House pool report:

“But I will say, look, I said I want to get out of these endless wars, I campaigned on that, I want to get out... We've been in Afghanistan for 19 years. As you know we've reduced very substantially in Afghanistan. 

He continued: ”We beat the Caliphate. We took back the 100 percent of the Caliphate. At 99 percent, Justin, I said we're going to get out we're going to start peeling back and everybody went crazy because it was 99, and so I said all right, so we'll finish it up. So we got 100 per cent. And we're pulling that back out of Syria. We're pulling a lot of people back."

“But this is a new wrinkle, a new fly in the ointment what happened, shooting down a drone. And this country will not stand for it, that I can tell you.”

Clark Mindock20 June 2019 18:10
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Clark Mindock20 June 2019 18:30
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Clark Mindock20 June 2019 18:40
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Clark Mindock20 June 2019 19:00
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As the father considers his plan for Iran, Donald Trump Jr is retweeting allegations of financial dealings between Joe Biden's son and foreign entities.

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Clark Mindock20 June 2019 19:15
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Here's what Ivanka Trump is up to today:

Clark Mindock20 June 2019 19:30

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