US drone was in our territorial waters where it was shot down, says Iranian FM

Outrightly dismissing US claims regarding the issue, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Thursday said that parts of the downed US drone were retrieved from Iran's territorial waters "where it was shot down."

The already volatile US-Iran relationship has further aggravated after the downing of the US military drone by Iran on Thursday.

While Iran has claimed that the "intruding American spy drone" was shot as it was in their airspace, Washington has labelled it as "an unprovoked attack." They claim that the US drone was flying over international waters when it was attacked.

"At 00:14 US drone took off from UAE in stealth mode and violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25deg59'43"N 57deg02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak," Zarif tweeted.

"We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down," he said while completely rejecting the US' statement.

US President Donald Trump showed restraint while talking about the issue on Thursday -- a move which has been appreciated by American observers.

"Probably Iran made a mistake. I would imagine it was a general or somebody who made a mistake in shooting that drone down," CNN quoted Trump as saying.

"I find it hard to believe it was intentional. I think it could've been somebody that was loose and stupid," he further said.

However, the President highlighted that the drone had "nobody in it," which has made a "big, big difference."

Trump maintained that the US drone was in international waters.

"Obviously, you know, we're not going to be talking too much about it. You'll find out. They made a very big mistake," he added while responding to whether the United States would retaliate by waging a war against Iran.

-ANI