Iran Downs US Drone Over Bandar Abbas as Trump's Sunday Deadline Arrives

BANDAR ABBAS — Iran's army said its air defenses shot down an American LUCAS drone over the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Sunday, October 25, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, as the Sunday deadline President Donald Trump set for a new strike on Iran or a negotiated agreement arrived. Trump told reporters in Florida on Saturday that the United States could launch fresh strikes as soon as Sunday, while also holding open what he called a big, beautiful agreement with Tehran.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran's policy will not change whether war resumes or not, and that management of the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be as before — a hardening of the position staked out in our Iran warning coverage. President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that Tehran must break out of its current state of neither war nor peace, as economic pressures mount. Separately, two senior Iranian officials told The New York Times that American diplomats and personnel are among Iran's potential targets if the war escalates.

Saudi air defenses also intercepted a Houthi cruise missile over Khamis Mushait on Sunday, according to Saudi state media, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards struck a Kurdish opposition base in Iraq's Kurdistan region with drones overnight. Follow our Middle East coverage for further developments.