TEHRAN — The naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have captured an American drone that Iran said entered its airspace over the Persian Gulf, state television reported Tuesday. The claim was quickly denied by the United States Navy and later by the Obama administration.
Iranian state news media said the aircraft was a ScanEagle built by
Boeing, which, according to the company’s Web site, can be launched and
operated from ships.
A spokesman for the United States Navy in Bahrain denied the Iranian claim, saying that no American drones were missing.
“The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles
operating in the Middle East region,” a spokesman for the United States
Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain told Reuters. “Our operations in
the gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and airspace.
We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently.”
The drone, however, could have been one used by the C.I.A., or even the
National Security Agency, which both have eyes on Iran. Several kingdoms
of the Persian Gulf also have ScanEagle drones.
The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said, “We have no evidence that the Iranian claims are true.”
Were the seizure confirmed, it would indicate a spike in tension between
the United States and Iran in the skies over the gulf. On Nov. 8,
Pentagon officials said Iranian warplanes had fired at a Predator drone the week before. It was believed to be the first time Iranian warplanes had fired on an American drone, they said.
State television showed images of what seemed to be an intact ScanEagle
being inspected by Rear Adm. Ali Fadavi, the commander of the
Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces. The drone was displayed in front of a large map of the Persian Gulf with a text in English and Persian saying, “We shall trample on the U.S.”
Without mentioning the drone claim, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on
Tuesday warned Iran’s adversaries against aggression. “Our enemies
should open their eyes,” he said in a speech. “They may be able to take a
few steps forward, but in the end we will make them retreat behind
their own border.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, told state television on
Tuesday that the country planned to use the capture of the drone as
evidence against the United States in international organizations.
“We had announced to the Americans that according to international
conventions, we would not allow them to invade our territories, but
unfortunately they did not comply,” Mr. Salehi said. “We had objected to
the Americans before, but they claimed they were not present in our
territories. We will use this drone as evidence to pursue a legal case
against American invasion in international forums.”
Admiral Fadavi said his forces had “hunted down” the ScanEagle over the
gulf after it violated Iranian airspace and had forced it to land
electronically, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. A state
television commentator said the drone was on a spy mission.
A September report by the Government Accountability Office
on unmanned aircraft systems warned that some drones were sensitive to
jamming and spoofing. In a spoofing operation, an unencrypted GPS signal
can be taken over by enemy forces, the report warns, effectively
hijacking the drone.
A former member of the Foreign Policy and National Security Commission
of Iran said the seizure of the drone illustrated the country’s growing
military powers and showed that the United States was not really
interested in mending relations with Tehran.
“How can we trust President Obama for talks if he sends his drones into
our airspace?” the former commission member, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh,
said in an interview. “This move is counterproductive for any détente.”
Iran’s Parliament, which always cheers any success by the Revolutionary
Guards, invited top commanders to present details of the capture to
lawmakers.
“The hunting and capturing of this American drone once again showed off
the defensive and repelling strengths of the Islamic republic to the
world,” Ebrahim Aghamohammadi, a member of Parliament, told Fars. “We
are moving forward with dominance.”
After the Nov. 1 attack on the Predator, American officials maintained
that the drone had been over international waters, while Iranian
commanders insisted that it had violated Iranian airspace. Sea and air
borders in the region are strongly contested.
Last month, Iran complained to the United Nations over what it said had
been at least eight violations of its airspace by American planes.
Iran’s latest claim came 12 months after it said it had brought down
an RQ-170 Sentinel operated by the C.I.A. At the time, Iranian state
television showed images of the bat-winged drone — apparently fully
intact — that Iran had nicknamed “the beast of Kandahar,” a reference to
a drone base in Afghanistan.
Iran has maintained that it hacked into the RQ-170’s controls and forced
it to land. American officials said it had crashed in Iranian
territory.
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