U.S. military response on Iran halted because was 'not proportionate': Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he blocked a planned military strike against Iran because it would not have been a proportionate response to Tehran's downing of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone, adding that more sanctions were imposed late Thursday.

"10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world," Trump said in a series of early morning tweets. "Sanctions are biting & more added last night."

Trump’s comments came after the New York Times reported the president approved military strikes Friday against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned $130-million surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching the attacks.

The report said Trump had initially approved strikes on a handful of targets such as radar and missile batteries, the paper cited senior administration officials involved in, or briefed on, the deliberations, as saying.

The strikes were set to take place just before dawn Friday to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians, it added.

Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles fired, when the order to stand down came, it cited one senior administration official as saying.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been Trump's third military action against targets in the Middle East, the paper added, saying Trump had struck twice at targets in Syria, in 2017 and 2018.

However, it is not clear whether attacks on Iran might still go forward, the paper said, adding that it was not known if the cancellation of strikes had resulted from Trump changing his mind or administration concerns regarding logistics or strategy.

Earlier Friday, the Fars news agency said Iran told the United States via the Swiss ambassador that Washington will be responsible for the consequences of any military action against Iran.

Because Washington and Tehran have no formal diplomatic ties, the Swiss ambassador in Tehran represents American interests in the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry, which summoned the ambassador, had told the envoy that Iran was not pursuing war with the United States.

Separately, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division said later that Iran had warned a U.S. military surveillance drone several times before launching a missile at it.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh made the comment in an interview with Iranian state television Friday. Debris from what Iranian authorities described as pieces of the U.S. Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk lay behind him.

Hajizadeh told state TV: "Unfortunately they did not answer."

He added Iran collected the debris from its territorial waters.

Hajizadeh was later quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency: "With the U.S. drone in the region there was also an American P-8 plane with 35 people on board. This plane also entered our airspace and we could have shot it down, but we did not."