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Iran broadcasts footage 'extracted from CIA spy drone' Iran broadcasts footage 'extracted from CIA spy drone'
(about 5 hours later)
Iran's state TV has broadcast footage allegedly extracted from the advanced CIA spy drone captured in 2011, the latest in a flurry of moves from Iranian authorities meant to underline the nation's purported military and technological advances. Iran has released video footage and still images Tehran claims were extracted from a US surveillance drone it captured two years ago as evidence of the Islamic republic's capability to decode the secret data obtained by the spy aircraft.
Iran has long claimed it managed to reverse-engineer the RQ-170 Sentinel, seized in December 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace from its eastern border with Afghanistan. State-run television broadcast a programme on Wednesday night about Iran's advances in drone technology that featured a poor-quality video that the narrator said was recorded by an RQ-170 Sentinel drone.
After initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, US officials eventually confirmed the Sentinel had been monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused, and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft. In December 2011, members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards put on show a US unmanned aerial vehicle they claimed to have brought down electronically. US officials later confirmed the aircraft was captured in Iran but insisted it malfunctioned and was not brought down.
The video aired late on Wednesday shows an aerial view of an airport and a city, said to be a US drone base and Kandahar in Afghanistan. Television also showed images purported to be the Sentinel landing at a base in eastern Iran but it was unclear if that footage was meant to depict the moment of the drone's seizure. At the time Barack Obama appealed for the return of the spy drone, but a Guards commander refused, saying the aircraft's flight over Iran amounted to a hostile act against the Islamic republic and a violation of its airspace. Iran then promised to investigate the drone's technology and produce it domestically.
In addition, footage showed images of an Iranian helicopter transporting the drone, as well as its disassembled parts being carried on a trailer. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guards' airspace division, narrating on Wednesday's TV programme, said: "We were able to definitively access the data of the drone, once we brought it down.
In another part of the video, the chief of the Revolutionary Guard's airspace division, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that only after capturing the drone did Iran realise it "belonged to the CIA". "After we decrypted the data … we realised that this aircraft had made a lot of flights inside regional countries."
"We were able to definitively access the data of the drone, once we brought it down," said Hajizadeh. The state-run English-language Press TV said on Thursday the footage shown was made by a camera positioned on the drone's underbelly, which also filmed a US military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
He described the Sentinel's capture as a huge scoop for Iran, saying that at the time Tehran did not rule out a possible punitive US air strike over the drone. Hajizadeh claimed that the drone's data has been "fully decoded". It could not be immediately verified if Iran had indeed decrypted classified video or merely shown what was recorded by a camera installed on the aircraft.
Iranian officials have accused the US of stepping up espionage activities against Iran as part of intensified western efforts to force Tehran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, a key aspect of its disputed nuclear programme. After the seizure of the drone, Hajizadeh said, there was speculation the US would send forces into Iran to destroy its remains, but he did not believe the Americans would take that risk.
The US and its allies suspect Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies. The programme's broadcast coincided with the anniversary celebrations of the 1979 Islamic revolution, a period of two weeks when Iran often puts on display its latest scientific, military and technological progresses.
In an attempt to embarrass Washington, Iran has claimed to have captured several American drones, most recently in December, when Tehran said it seized a Boeing-designed ScanEagle drone – a less sophisticated aircraft – after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf. Tehran's claims of military advances are often met with scepticism in the west. Last week, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended an unveiling ceremony for what was claimed to be a domestically built stealth fighter jet capable of operating at low levels. Military experts have since cast doubt on the authenticity of the claims.
US officials said there was no evidence that the latest claims were true. Since Iran seized the RQ-170, the country has claimed advances in its drone industry and has exhibited a number of US and Israeli drones allegedly brought down from its airspace.
The latest Sentinel footage came as the US tightened sanctions to pressure the Iranian government to limit its nuclear program and restrictions on institutions, which Washington says are stifling political dissent and censoring speech. In September, the Guards unveiled what it claimed was a new "indigenous" reconnaissance drone capable of reaching Israel. Shahed-129 (or Witness-129) was claimed to have a range of up to 2,000km and capable of 24 hours of flight.
Among the expanded measures, announced Monday by the treasury department, is a move to deny Iran access to revenue garnered from its oil exports. Under the latest sanctions, Iran would only be able to use revenue from its oil sales in a country that purchased its crude – now mostly big Asian economies such as China and India – which would significantly limit its access to the money. In December, a Guards commander said his forces had their hands on a US ScanEagle unmanned drone, which, he added, was being produced in mass domestically. Ali Fadavi was quoted at the time by Iranian agencies as saying that Iran has captured a total of three ScanEagles. US authorities denied those claims at the time, saying all its unmanned air vehicles were fully accounted for.
Wednesday's TV programme also showed pictures of ScanEagle drone production line in Iran.
Mohammad Eslami, a deputy defence minister, said in the programme that Iran was producing "more than 20 types of drones", adding that Tehran intended to export its unmanned aircraft, including Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
"With Lebanon locating in Iran's strategic depth, they can use our facilities and achievements," he added.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in October that a drone shot down by Israel was assembled in Lebanon but designed in Iran. Iranian officials confirmed his comments.