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A US military helicopter has crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, and President Donald Trump said the two crew members aboard were uninjured in the incident near a waterway that Iran successfully blocked during the war.
What caused the accident was not clear Tuesday morning in the Middle East, which was still reeling after Iran and Israel exchanged fire the day before in the most difficult ceasefire in the Iran war. Iran’s state media, relying on foreign reports, acknowledged the crash without elaborating.
Since the US and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has shaken the world economy, raised energy prices around the world and made many basic things, including food, more expensive. Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into an agreement to end the conflict altogether.
Trump, speaking to reporters at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after watching the NBA Finals on Monday night, acknowledged the accident.
“The pilots are fine. Yes,” Trump said. “No one was injured. We will issue a report tomorrow. But the pilots are alive.”
The New York Times first reported that a US military Apache helicopter went down near the strait under unclear circumstances. The US military’s Central Command and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Apache helicopters have become a key asset for the US military as it enforces an embargo on Iranian crude oil shipments and tankers, seeking to pressure Tehran into a deal. Helicopters were also used by the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian drones during the Iran war.
Trump reiterated that the Iran deal is coming
Trump also expressed renewed hope for talks with Iran.
“We have a good chance” of signing the deal in “two or three days,” Trump said. But he did not provide details as to why there is reason for renewed hope.
“We are very close to having a very good, strong, strong agreement,” the president said. “If we go bombing – which we can easily do if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing – they won’t be left with anything. But it won’t be open for months.”
He continued: “If we detonate bombs, you know, many people will be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t want to.”
A day after exchanging missiles, both Israel and Iran stopped firing but said they would retaliate if the strikes resumed.
Mediators, mainly led by Pakistan, have been trying to reach an agreement for weeks. However, Iran and the US have taken tough positions.
The US wants to see Iran dispose of a large stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to be buried in the country after US airstrikes in the 12-day war by 2025. But Iran rejects that and wants relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final deal is in place, something Trump has rejected.
Israel issues Lebanon warning
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, which has now been spared from airstrikes that destroyed the port city.
Last week, Israel warned its Christian neighbors in Tire that they believe Hezbollah members are among them. Many Lebanese Shia Muslims have fled to those areas since Israeli airstrikes hit the area on the Mediterranean coast two weeks ago.
After last week’s warning, the Lebanese army was sent to the Christian region of Tire in an attempt to prevent an Israeli attack there and to show that Hezbollah does not have weapons in the area. But Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-speaking Israeli military spokesman, wrote in X on Monday that the Israeli army “will have to take action against its terrorism in the region soon.”
