Iran’s foreign minister says the war has fundamentally changed the strategic realities of the region, as Iranian air defenses shoot down a U.S. LUCAS drone near Bandar Abbas and Tehran warns Washington against renewed military aggression.

TEHRAN -- Iran’s foreign minister declared on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz will never return to its previous status, as Iran’s army announced it had shot down a U.S. drone over the strategic waterway’s northern approaches.

Abbas Araghchi, speaking at the inauguration of a documentation center and museum honoring assassinated diplomat Kamal Kharrazi in Tehran, said the 40-day war imposed on Iran by the United States and Israel has produced “fundamental and strategic changes” across West Asia, and that “nothing will be the same” as before—including the management of the Strait of Hormuz.

“For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has remained open, and neither Iran nor Oman, the two coastal states bordering the waterway, has imposed any restrictions on maritime traffic,” Araghchi said.

“However, the current war has changed everything. We must acknowledge that new realities have emerged. The shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be the same as before, nor will the Strait be managed as it was in the past.”

The foreign minister’s remarks were reinforced by military developments the same day. Iran’s army public relations department announced that air defense systems operating under the country’s integrated network had intercepted and destroyed a U.S. LUCAS drone—a low-cost one-way attack system modelled on Iran’s own Shahed-136—over Bandar Abbas, the port city commanding the Strait’s northern entrance.

It was at least the second LUCAS downed over southern Iran, following a similar interception in July and the downing of a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper over the Strait by IRGC forces earlier in the week.

Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Ali Abdollahi said on Saturday that the United States must confine its ambitions to dreams.

“The U.S. president must only dream of their military and army entering the Persian Gulf again,” Abdollahi said. “They will take this wish to their graves.”

Araghchi’s address also served as a detailed indictment of Washington’s treacherous conduct since the February 28 unprovoked attack on Iran in the midst of nuclear negotiations.

He recounted that Iran had agreed to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding—a 14-point framework brokered by Pakistan and signed by the U.S. president himself—under which Tehran would secure the Strait within two months in exchange for an end to the war on all fronts and the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade.

“In less than three weeks, the Americans reneged,” Araghchi said. “They even failed to stay committed for two weeks. So we acted in good faith. We adhered to our commitments. But please remember that the war is still ongoing right now, because Iran is under their blockade, and this military blockade, under international law, constitutes an act of war.”

He said Washington’s insistence on unilateral demands remains the central obstacle, a point echoed by Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei in an interview with Germany’s ARD network on Sunday.

Baghaei said Iran has never left the negotiating table and that messages continue to be conveyed through mediators, but that “the problem lies in America’s insistence on its unilateral demands”.

Baghaei also addressed the Strait directly, telling ARD: “The Strait of Hormuz is not secure—not because Iran made it insecure, but because the United States and Israel exploited this passage; because they continue to exploit the entire region to carry out military aggression and continue their illegal and aggressive behavior against Iran.

“Therefore, as long as this situation continues, we have no choice but to take the necessary measures to protect our territorial integrity, national security and our people.”

Araghchi used the Kharrazi ceremony to advance a broader argument about regional order. He said stability must be achieved through cooperation among regional states themselves, without external interference, and that U.S. military bases have become a source of insecurity for their hosts rather than a guarantee of safety.

“Regional issues are interconnected,” Araghchi said. “It is not possible to have war and conflict in one part of the region while expecting peace and calm in another.”

“That is why, in all our negotiations with the U.S. side, mediated by Pakistan, Qatar and other friendly countries, we have emphasized that any end to the war must encompass all fronts and bring an end to hostilities on every front,” he said.

Araghchi described Israel as the primary source of instability and warmongering, and said the recent wars have demonstrated that security arrangements relying on foreign military presence have proven ineffective.

“American military bases in the region have failed to bring peace and security to their host countries. On the contrary, their presence has itself become a source of insecurity.”

Araghchi reiterated Iran’s willingness to cooperate with Persian Gulf states, saying relations were good and that Tehran sought a common understanding on a new regional security framework.

He also warned that if the aggressors retained any sense of reason, they would not attempt another military assault. “They’ve tried twice, and they’ve seen the results,” he said.

The Kharrazi ceremony itself underscored the stakes. Kamal Kharrazi, head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations and a former foreign minister, was assassinated on April 9 in a strike on his Tehran residence that also martyred his spouse. Iran has vowed to pursue legal and diplomatic accountability for the terrorist assassination.