DUBAI: Iran possesses drones that are far more advanced than the unmanned aircraft Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched into Israeli airspace this month, Iran’s defence minister was quoted as saying yesterday.
Iran’s military regularly announces defence and engineering developments though some analysts are sceptical of the reliability of such reports.
Earlier this month, Israel shot down a drone after it flew 55km into the Jewish state. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the aircraft, saying its parts had been manufactured in Iran and assembled in Lebanon.
Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the downed drone did not use his country’s latest know-how, according to a report from Iran’s Mehr news agency yesterday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran currently possesses unmanned aircrafts with technology that is far more advanced than the drone recently sent by Hezbollah forces to fly in the skies of the Zionist regime (Israel),” he was quoted as saying. “Undoubtedly the technology in the (Hezbollah) drone ... was not Iran’s latest technology.”
Vahidi had earlier said that the drone’s launch into Israel was a sign of the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities. In April, Iran announced it had started to build a copy of a US surveillance drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, which was captured last year after it came down near the Afghan border.
Tensions in the region have simmered over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and Israeli threats to bomb its nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail. Tehran says it is seeking only civilian nuclear energy.
In a speech on Saturday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to present the country as a defender of peace and security in the Gulf region, echoing comments made in the past by Iranian military leaders.
“The Iranian nation has never been an aggressor nation, but history has shown that it is a very good defender,” Ahmadinejad said.
AFP
